From next September, based on a new scheme for free textbooks, the guardians of Junior Cycle pupils could save more than €300 annually, says Norma Foley, Minister for Education. This initiative, backed by a €68 million Government fund, will aid around 212,000 students initially – equating to €309 per student, from first to third year across 670 comprehensive schools. However, the scheme excludes fee-levying secondary schools with an estimated 30,000 student population.
The funds will go towards the purchase of books, ebooks and essential classroom resources like calculators, but it will not include digital devices. Schools are cautioned against requesting parents to bear, rent or contribute towards these expenditures since the current funding should suffice.
To administer the funds, schools will receive them in March. This enables them to procure books and necessary resources before the academic year 2024-25 begins. Parents, therefore, will no longer be burdened with purchasing these items for their children in Junior Cycle at secondary level.
The class resources covered under the umbrella of ‘free schoolbooks’ are textbooks, workbooks, copybooks, journals, dramas, novels, and essential classroom tools like dictionaries and calculators needed for learning.
The school, bearing in mind relevance to the curriculum and cost efficiency, will have the liberty to decide which books to buy.
However, these textbooks will remain school property, and it will be ensured as far as possible that they are returned after the school year or Junior Cycle for future use. The ownership of ebook licenses lasts throughout a student’s Junior Cycle studies.
Just as a reminder for parents, students are expected to maintain their books and other resources in good condition throughout the year. If a book is damaged, consequences are yet to be discussed.
The Education Department strongly suggests that all educational texts should be covered. Schoolbook vendors and distributors may offer book-covering services for a fee, alternatively, the school, parents, or even the pupils themselves could undertake such work.
It’s not specified in the guidance how damages will be addressed. This is likely to fall within the school’s discretion as it retains ownership of the said books.
Rectifying a common query, will the grant cover the purchasing of digital devices? The response is – no. Although, funds can be utilised for “digital media support” which pertains to the pedagogical requirements of the curriculum.
A rare exception exists for those few schools that solely employ teacher-created content and resources excluding standard textbooks. If surplus funds are available, these unique establishments can provide digital devices to students on a loan basis.
School leaders may express concern about the added demand of organising book purchases. To address this, an administrative support grant will be supplied to schools to help with the execution and management of the programme, minimising extra administrative stress.
To utilise this grant, schools can consider hiring additional help or direct the funds towards other administrative expenses related to the execution of the programme.
How will the funding level alter from year to year for the programme? A review of the free book programme is due after its first year of operation. Given that most schools will be capable of reusing a majority of their books annually, it’s anticipated that the initial costs in the first year could be higher.
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