Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 2 May 2001

Vol. 535 No. 2

Written Answers - School Libraries.

Brian O'Shea

Ceist:

80 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Education and Science the number of primary and post-primary schools which have libraries; his views on the importance of well stocked libraries in achieving good literacy standards; and his proposals to improve the current provision. [12307/01]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

I am conscious of the need to ensure that all schools have access to proper library facilities and resources. There is evidence from both international and national studies of reading literacy of an association between having large school libraries and pupils' average achievement scores. In other words, students in those countries and schools that have relatively large school libraries tend to do better than students in those countries and schools where this is not the case. It is important that schools are equipped with a large and varied selection of books and other literacy materials to encourage students to develop the habit of reading for pleasure and for independent learning.

My Department does not have details of the number of schools with library facilities. At post-primary level it provides a library of 100m in schools with an enrolment of between 200 and 499 students while it provides 136m of accommodation for a library in schools with more than 500 students. Schools below 200 are examined individually. At primary level the design guidelines for schools provide for a library-general resource area. These guidelines are applied to all new school developments and, where possible, in cases of major refurbishment.

In addition, in recent years two major grants, involving a total expenditure of some £13 million, have issued to primary and post-primary schools to assist them with the development of their library resource materials. The first grant was issued by my Department in December 1998. At that time all primary schools received a grant of £1,000 per school and schools designated as disadvantaged received £3,170 each. The grant issued to second level schools in December 1998 amounted to £2,500 and disadvantaged schools received £5,320.

A second grant was issued to all primary and post-primary schools in December 1999 as part of the national reading initiative. Under the terms of this grant primary schools received a payment of £7.70 per pupil and a minimum grant of £462 was issued to all schools with 60 pupils or less. Post-primary schools also received £7.70 per pupil and a minimum grant of £1,540 was paid to all schools with less than 200 recognised pupils.

At primary level the total value of these two grants was approximately £7.7 million and at second level the two grants amounted to £5.2 million.

In addition to issuing grants to schools, my Department also issued comprehensive guidelines to schools on the types of resources that the grant money could be used to purchase. At primary level these guidelines took the form of a publication called Book Choice – Guidelines for Primary Schools which issued in early 1999 and Departmental circular 35/99 which issued in December 1999. At post-primary level Departmental circular M16/99 – Guidelines for Reading at Second Level was issued to schools in May 1999 and Departmental circular M51/99 was issued in December 1999.

These guidelines make it clear that the grants were intended to assist schools in developing their library resource materials. The publication entitled Book Choice encouraged schools to liaise with the public library service when purchasing books for school libraries.