Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 3 July 2013
2. Deputy Jonathan O'Brien asked the Minister for Education and Skills his plans to implement the recommendations of the Oireachtas Select Committee on Education who have proposed that pupils should not be obliged to wear crested uniforms and schools should end the practice of using work plans and if he will present a timetable for when these measures will be implemented. [32342/13]
Amharc ar fhreagraMy Department will carefully consider the joint committee's report on tackling back-to-school costs which was published last week.
Tackling the costs associated with school is a major priority of mine. I have recently issued guidance on schoolbook rental schemes. I have also raised the matter of school uniforms informally with the National Parents Council at primary level recommending that it and the National Parents Council at post-primary level mobilise parents' associations to raise this issue with school authorities. I agree with the joint committee's view that more must be done at school level to show greater leadership in this regard.
It is important that all schools are sensitive to the financial pressures on parents not only with regard to school uniforms or books but in respect of any matter that has cost implications for parents. Therefore, I join the call to urge individual schools, boards and patrons to ensure that any steps recommended for schools in the report are implemented as soon as possible.
This issue has been raised on numerous occasions in the Chamber. We have been told consistently that the issue of school uniforms is a matter for individual boards of management.
It is.
I welcome the fact the Minister said we need leadership on this issue, but I believe we need leadership from the Minister as well. I imagine the Minister is well aware that under the 1998 Act he has the power to issue recommendations on this or any other matter. This was last done in 2008 in respect of school uniforms. The recommendations issued in 2008 were not exactly progressive. One of the recommendations made for the current system was that school uniform policy should be left to schools, as before. However, the Minister has the power, by virtue of being Minister, to issue recommendations to change that. It is unfair to say that it is up to parents to mobilise. I understand that must be part of the process but the first step should involve the Minister issuing recommendations to various boards of management.
The other issue relates to voluntary contributions. The Department's discussion document on enrolment envisages the matter of voluntary contributions being regulated by secondary legislation. Are there any proposals by the Minister or the Department to introduce legislation on this issue?
I am very supportive of the recommendations of the joint committee. As Deputy O'Brien is aware, they were all-party recommendations. I will be studying the report carefully and I will consider whether it is appropriate for me to make a formal recommendation. I have stated repeatedly during the past two years that in the first instance it is a role for parents, who are represented on the boards of management of schools, to move in the direction suggested in the report.
I hope to have the draft enrolment legislation and the statutory instruments ready fairly soon and to publish them. I will deal with that issue in draft form in the publication when it is ready.
I thank the Minister for his reply. Can we get a commitment that if the schools, boards of management and patron bodies do not take on board the recommendations, then the Minister will actively pursue issuing his own recommendations as the powers vested in his office allow? I offer one example of a school in Cork which was recently amalgamated. Prior to the amalgamation there was a consultation process with the parents. One of the outcomes of the consultation process involved a commitment given in respect of school uniforms such that they would be phased in over several years, because of the additional costs. That was agreed but, unfortunately, it has been reneged on. I have before me a letter from one parent who has three children attending the newly amalgamated school. One of them is in sixth class and that student must get a crested uniform, a crested coat and a crested tracksuit at a considerable cost for one year only. A letter was sent out by the board of management stating that if students do not have the full uniform there will be consequences.
I will pass on information to the Minister but there is a lack of recommendations coming from the Department and this is the result. Individual boards of management are taking ludicrous decisions when it comes to school costs and I have no faith in the ability of individual boards of management to take on board the significant financial pressures that parents find themselves under.
All I can say is that since the foundation of the State, and even going back before then, a partnership has existed between the State and school providers and educators. The Department at national level does not micro-manage individual schools. We have endorsed the role of the National Parents Council at primary and post-primary levels.
With all due respect I am not passing the buck but that is the body to which those aggrieved parents should write in the first instance. It is understandable why the people wrote to Deputy O'Brien. I presume they were his constituents. I have met the National Parents Council at primary and post-primary levels and I will certainly take up the issue with them. However, ultimately, all I can do is make a recommendation. It will be for the boards of management, on which the parents are represented, finally to decide.
