Back-to-school grants

Mon Aug 07 2017 - 01:03

Sir, – The complaints and controversies surrounding back-to-school costs have me baffled.

Where have all the hand-me-downs gone – the second-hand books, the second-hand bikes and the traded football boots? We queued for hours at Brown & Nolan’s, Hodges Figgis and Greene’s bookshops clutching our book lists hoping to get the cheapest second-hand school books we could find; we all handed down uniforms, blazers, and coats.

What was not handed down within the family was found within the school and there were no government grants! Neither was there free secondary education.

I realise that was then and this is now – but there are ways and means. – Yours, etc,