Families should not be placed under unnecessary pressure by schools to provide replacement school books each year, while authorities should reuse schoolbooks and establish more book rental schemes, Minister for Education Mary Hanafin has said.
Outlining details of some €14 million in funding for schoolbooks for students from low-income families, Ms Hanafin said more than 250,000 pupils in primary and post-primary schools would benefit from the scheme this year.
However, the Labour Party said Ms Hanafin's department was not providing enough funding to alleviate the significant financial burden placed on thousands of parents during the back-to-school season.
It said books were provided free in Northern Ireland, and claimed that funding allocated under the current school books grant schemes equated to an average of just €11.75 per pupil at primary level and €20 per pupil at secondary level.
Ms Hanafin said school authorities had been advised that books should only be changed where necessary, in order to enable students' work to be kept "educationally stimulating" and to ensure that content and methodology were kept up to date.
"Parents should be able to pass on the books from one child to the other in the same family, from year to year," she said.
"We know that where school book rental schemes are in operation, that as well as relieving the financial burden on families, it has a positive impact on a child's educational attainment."
Labour spokeswoman on education, Jan O'Sullivan TD, called for an increase in funding for both the school books grant scheme and the books rental scheme.
She added that steps should be taken to ensure that applications are processed speedily.
A survey carried out by her party last year found that the cost of books for a child starting primary school was up to €125, rising to as much as €527 for a pupil entering first year in secondary school, she said.