Dear Editor,
Efforts to lower the financial strain of back to school expenses on parents is universally admired. It would, however, be practical for the Department of Social Protection to back the complimentary textbook scheme for pre-primary and primary students, akin to how they fund annual payments for the back to school clothing and footwear allowance. In contrast, the mass giveaway of books is a cherished initiative by the Minister for Education, Norma Foley, which ends up costing the Department of Education an eye-watering €120 million without the sight of a school ICT grant within the current year.
Schools will take possession of textbooks and classroom aids, which will be lent to pupils for the duration of a single academic year or the entirety of the Junior Cycle. These tools will include necessary resources such as notebooks, calculators and subject specific assets like dictionaries for linguistics or lab notebooks for science.
Administrative support will be offered sparingly, with schools shouldering the brunt of the additional workload. Responsibilities such as compiling lists of literary resources, managing electronic book licenses, storing inventory and tracking book distribution with barcodes will all heavily fall on them, along with ensuring books are returned.
The education budget saw a significant drop in funds: from €90 million provided last year to now only €81 million. Arguably, the €120 million injected into this book scheme could have been better directed towards the burgeoning issues surfacing within our education system, problems which can only be fixed with correct and adequate funding.
Kind Regards,
John McHugh
Headmaster,
Ardscoil Rís,
Dublin 9.