New scheme represents tangible progress in the drive to make access to education truly free
NEWS - Norma Foley speaking with children from St Mathew's National School, Sandymount, Irishtown, Jake Bell, Dylan Hamilton , Ava Hamilton , Alana Hamilton , and Zac Bell at the lunch of the free schoolbooks scheme. Photograph: Alan Betson / The Irish Timeswhich had been announced last year for primary schools. From September 2024 the scheme will also include 210,000 first, second and third year post-primary students.
The additional expenses associated with Ireland’s supposedly “free” education system have long presented a significant burden for parents, especially for economically marginalised families who may be forced to go into debt as a result. But removing school books – the costs of which are estimated at over €310 per secondary student – from the equation is more than just a temporary cost of ling measure.
In recent years, book rental schemes, set up by parents to share textbooks by passing them on from one class to the next, played a significant part in reducing costs at primary level. These schemes still have an important role to play by encouraging best environmental practice and getting the best value for money. A longstanding refrain from parents has been that the list of required textbooks changes too often or that editions are revised too quickly, preventing them from passing books down.
The new scheme may not capture the full complexity of education in the 21st century – the place of tablets and other e-learning devices remains to be addressed – but it is a significant contribution towards the reduction of child poverty in the State and is a further step towards realising the commitment first made almost 60 years ago by Donogh O’Malley that every child in Ireland should have the right to a free education.
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