Parents face €250 bill with axing of schoolbook grant
HARD-pressed parents will have to pay around €250 for books for each child in second level schools next September.
But because of the axing of the schoolbook grant from the majority of schools, poorer parents will not get any assistance towards the cost.
The withdrawal of the grant was last night described as the "cruellest cut of them all" by the Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI). General Secretary Peter MacMenamin said the decision would save the Department of Education and Science a meagre €7.5m.
A department spokesperson said the book grant would continue to be paid to 876 designated disadvantaged schools -- 673 primary schools and 203 second-level schools out of a total of 4,000 schools in the country.
Mr MacMenamim said a large number of union members had expressed serious concern that classroom activities could be severely affected by the removal of schoolbook aid and the worsening financial situations of families.
"They have already been told to be ready for classes in September with no books and to make alternative arrangements. Even before this cutback, Ireland had the unwelcome distinction of being one of the few European countries where schoolbooks are not provided free to all students in the education system."
Pressure
He said the union was suggesting strongly that there should be no syllabus changes while the book grant remains suspended. With a syllabus change all previous books for the subject were made redundant and new books produced by the publishers.
"This will put impossible pressures on families who in addition to having to cope with additional taxes, levies and other costs now find they have to pay for books. The minister has justified increasing class sizes to levels from several years ago by saying that they were adequate at that time. TUI says that the syllabus in operation now is adequate until the book grant can be restored to the deserving families," he added.
"There is a very definite link between educational achievement, employment prospects and earning power. The short-term and long-term costs to our young people, particularly those (from) families most hit by the current recession, together with the cost to the economy and society in general far outweigh the relatively small saving that cutting book aid has secured for the Exchequer," he said.
- John Walshe Education Editor
