Vol. 562 No. 3
52 Mr. Howlin asked the Minister for Education and Science if he will consider requesting schools to make returns to his Department of the amounts raised through voluntary contributions, in order that it can clearly be established the amount parents are contributing; if the amounts have increased as a result of insufficient funding from his Department; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [5827/03]
The manner in which voluntary contributions are sought from local communities for optional extras over and above what is provided for in the general school programme is a matter for school principals and managements. Voluntary contributions by parents and others are permissible under the free education scheme. The extent of such fund raising by and on behalf of schools is determined by a range of socio-economic factors, including the level of local initiative and the need for additional facilities and curriculum provision as perceived by parents and the wider community. Local contributions towards education provision have long been a feature of the Irish education system. The benefits of obtaining returns from the schools, as suggested by the Deputy, are not clear.
Significant improvements have been made in the level of funding to second level schools. The standard per capita grant from €224.74 that applied in 1997, was increased to €266.49 in this school year. An additional per capita grant of €38.09 is paid to disadvantaged schools bringing the total per capita grant in the case of such schools to over €300. In addition, under the school services support initiative, second level schools have benefited from significant increases in the support grant from €25.40 per pupil in the year 2000 to €99 per pupil with effect from 1 January 2003.
Funding for voluntary secondary schools has been further enhanced by the introduction of a range of equalisation measures that are designed to reduce historic anomalies in the funding arrangements for the different school types at second level. Under the terms of a recent equalisation measure, the support services grant was increased by €28 per pupil with effect from September 2002. This brings the support services grant in the case of secondary schools to €116.88 per pupil from September 2002 and to €127 per pupil from 1 January 2003. This increase is in addition to the range of equalisation grants of up to €15,554 per school –€44.44 per pupil – per annum that was approved for secondary schools in December 2001. For a school with 500 pupils, this amounts to extra funding of up to €100,000 per annum, and annual grants of €236,761 –€255,811 in the case of disadvantaged schools – towards general expenses and support services.
Question No. 53 answered with Question No. 47.
