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School Costs

Dáil Éireann Debate, Wednesday - 13 May 2020

Wednesday, 13 May 2020

Ceisteanna (230)

Jennifer Carroll MacNeill

Ceist:

230. Deputy Jennifer Carroll MacNeill asked the Minister for Education and Skills the estimated cost of providing free schoolbooks to children at primary and post-primary level; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [4723/20]

Amharc ar fhreagra

Freagraí scríofa

My Department provides a book grant to all recognised primary and post primary schools within the Free Education Scheme in order to provide assistance for books including Book Rental Schemes. Under this scheme, the Department provided funding of €16.9 million in 2019 to all of these schools.

I also announced additional funding of €1million which is being allocated to 102 Primary DEIS schools for a new pilot programme for the 2020/21 school year. The aim of this pilot is to provide free school books for students in the schools involved, and to support these schools in eliminating the cost of school books for parents. Under Circular 46/2013, DEIS schools receive a book grant of €21 per student. This pilot will provide an additional €64 per student to increase the overall book grant rate to €85 per student enrolled in the school. This additional funding will issue to schools in May 2020.

School book rental schemes have an important role to play in reducing the cost of school books for parents and in order to support the establishment of book rental schemes my Department provided €15.7 million seed capital in 2014, 2015 and 2016 to primary schools. Circa. 96% of primary schools and 68% of post-primary schools operate a book rental scheme

It is a matter for the Board of Management of each individual school to decide on its own policy in relation to the use of book grant funding in the school but they are expected to adopt a cost-conscious approach to the selection of books for use in their classes. The current arrangement relies on the local knowledge of the school in order to ensure a fair allocation of funds to those most in need. Therefore, my Department does not hold information in relation to these costs.

Indicative estimate of providing free primary and secondary school books to all pupils across all fully publicly funded schools based on a survey by Barnardos is €40M.

Each 1% increase in the book grant for primary and post-primary schools would cost approximately €170,000. The following table sets out the estimated cost of increasing the book grant by 10%, 20%, 30%, 40% and 50%.

% increase

Cost of increase

10%

€1.7m

20%

€3.4m

30%

€5.1m

40%

€6.8m

50%

€8.5m

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