Over three-quarters of primary schools operate a book rental scheme, according to a Department of Education survey.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn also announced he is protecting grants given to schools for books in the next academic year.
“Despite the challenging economic times, this Government is committed to doing everything it can to reduce the financial burden of school books on families so I have ring-fenced €15 million in textbook grants to be distributed to schools next month.”
This money will be distributed at the same rate as last year to Deis (Delivering equality of opportunity in schools) and non-Deis institutes.
“I am very pleased to see the high level of book-rental schemes in operation at primary school level and want to encourage this practice across all schools in our education landscape,” continued Mr Quinn.
The department is publishing draft guidelines on school book rental schemes, which were developed with the two national parents councils, Barnardos and St Vincent de Paul.
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