Ask Brian: Do I have to make a ‘voluntary contribution’ to my school?

PROBLEM: My daughter's school requests that parents make a "voluntary contribution" to help meet their day-to-day running costs. I have paid it for the past two years, but read media reports of suggestions by the Minister for Education that schools should not request these payments. Where do I stand?

ADVICE: Jan O'Sullivan is correct in stating that parents should not have to make financial contributions towards the basic cost of their children's education up to Leaving Cert level.

But she is disingenuous when she fails to add that this can happen only if the Government is willing to provide enough funding to schools to allow them to make ends meet.

I was a student at postprimary level when the “free education scheme” was introduced in 1967. The offer from the Department of Education at the time was a subvention of £25 a year per student. For many schools this was not sufficient to meet their day-to-day running costs, so for a time it appeared a significant number would stay outside the scheme.

The logjam was broken when it was agreed that, so long as they were deemed voluntary, schools could continue to receive financial support from parents to bridge the gap between – in my school’s case – the £25 State subvention per student and the previous fee of £39.

Thus was born the fudge that enabled the "free education scheme" to become operational. The State would pay a significant proportion of the running costs of schools, with parents paying the balance through "voluntary contributions". The minister of the day got his "free education scheme" through cabinet, and more importantly, past the mandarins in the Department of Finance.

The cost of second-level education dropped significantly, to a level where the number of students soared and, as a consequence, triggered the invention of the Central Applications Office points system to ration scarce places at third level.

A proportion of parents who traditionally had not sent their children to voluntary secondary schools were not in a position to pay the contribution. I am not aware of a single incident where they were pursued for this money.

The majority of parents understood perfectly the compromise that “free education” involved: the State pays a proportion of your child’s education costs from general taxation and you make up the balance while your child is going through the system.

It seems to me that this is the settled political will of the Irish people. I don’t detect any great willingness among voters to see general taxation increase to the level required to fund totally free education at primary and second level, not to mention third level.

O’Sullivan knows this. It is rash, therefore, to suggest to parents they should stop paying “voluntary contributions” to their children’s schools.

The reality is schools cannot provide quality education to their students without these much-needed contributions from parents.

• Your questions answered by education analyst Brian Mooney. Email queries to askbrian@irishtimes.com