Fine Gael TD Jennifer Carroll MacNeill has criticised the exclusion of children in fee-charging primary schools from the free schoolbooks announcement in last month’s Budget.
Minister for Education Norma Foley announced the introduction of a new scheme to provide “free books for all students in primary school” from September next year for 540,000 pupils.
The Department of Education has since confirmed that the measure will be available to “recognised primary schools in the free education sector” and there is “no funding for any educational establishments outside of this category”.
There are about 38 fee-charging primary schools across the State.
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They do not receive State funding and are not inspected by the Department of Education. Instead they are funded by tuition fees, which range from about €3,000 to €11,000, and regulated by Tusla, the child and family agency.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said the free schoolbooks announcement had been “presented as a universal measure” yet this was not the case for significant number of families.
“These are taxpayers, the same as everyone else. What is different about them? They are facing the same cost-of-living challenges,” she said.
“This was an €11 billion budget with a €47 million expansion for this scheme to introduce it permanently and universally. What’s the rationale for excluding these children from this universal measure? How much would it cost to extend the measure to these children? If schoolbooks are being bought in bulk, surely these deals could be extended to provide books to these children?” she said.
Ms Carroll MacNeill said she plans to raise the issue with the Taoiseach in the Dáil on Wednesday.
Value for money
In response to a written parliamentary question, Ms Foley told Ms Carroll-McNeill this week that funding to provide free books to primary school students will be provided in “recognised primary schools from September 2023″.
She said the measure will eliminate the cost to families for all schoolbooks at primary school, including workbooks.
“It is planned that funds will be provided to schools to purchase schoolbooks and classroom resources. Schools will be encouraged to seek the best value for money when procuring schoolbooks and related classroom resources,” Ms Foley said, in her reply.
“Schools buy books directly from school book retailers at present as part of the implementation of the school book rental scheme. Ninety-six per cent of primary schools participate in the book rental scheme.”
Ms Foley said guidance on the procurement of books will be developed in further engagement with schools, parent and management bodies and other stakeholders.
“This will ensure that value for money is achieved, and that schools will be supported to implement the scheme in a way that has the best learning outcomes for pupils,” she said.
The exclusion of fee-charging primary and secondary schools from automatic access to a once-off €90 million fund to meet the rising cost of energy bills has also sparked controversy.
Ms Foley said her department was open to requests for additional support from fee-charging schools on a “case-by-case” basis.
Fee-charging schools argue that they have been excluded from automatic access to a range of vital supports including Covid-19 safety measures and other teacher supply measures in recent times.
Critics, however, argue that fee-charging schools are in a unique position in that they can generate funds by increasing mandatory tuition fees.
