Education Minister Norma Foley plans to secure funding in the forthcoming Budget that will enable free schoolbooks for senior cycle students in secondary education. The initiative to provide free textbooks initially began at the primary level last year and is anticipated to encompass Junior Cycle students beginning from the coming September.
This initiative distributes free workbooks and copybooks to the youth and children. Schools are not allowed to request parents to either purchase or rent these items, in line with the funding programme guidelines.
Foley indicated that her intention is to extend this initiative to encompass 4th, 5th, and 6th year students at the secondary level, which she describes as the “final challenge”. She expressed her optimism for realising this goal in the upcoming budget, while also acknowledging other pressing budgetary demands.
The advantages of this endeavour have not gone unnoticed by the Government, and the broader society as well. Foley pointed out that organisations like Vincent de Paul have observed a relatable decrease in aid requests around August/September last year. Foley further expressed her determination to realise this objective during the upcoming budget approval.
Foley made these announcements during an event held to celebrate the successful completion of the programme’s second year which targets primary and special school pupils. The programme is anticipated to benefit over 560,000 primary school students, which includes over 19,000 attendees from special schools.
Besides textbooks, workbooks and copybooks are also provided as part of the initiative to younger students. It is foreseen that this programme at the primary level will cost slightly above €47 million in the next academic year. This is a reduction from last year’s €50 million, a change achieved due to cost savings from reusing textbooks.
The primary level funding is proportionally assigned at €80 per student based on enrolment numbers as of last 30th September. At the secondary level, an estimated €65 million is allocated for providing free textbooks to first, second, and third-year Junior Cycle students. The initiative however exclusively caters to secondary schools that don’t charge fees.
Foley announced that her department will persist in providing schools with administrative grants to help facilitate this initiative. She mentioned the provision of augmented support for larger schools to manage their increased workload.
Ms Foley mentioned that additional resources and instructions are available to alleviate the “considerable” strain that the scheme has put on headteachers at tier two. Contrary to the concern raised by some autonomous bookstores, that the initiative poses a risk to their operations, Ms Foley pointed out that several schools are still choosing to uphold their ties with neighbourhood stores.