Parents set to pay up as schools face shortfall
- Published: 27 September 2008
By Niall Murray, Education Correspondent
PARENTS and local communities could be asked to raise one-third of the budgets of the country's secondary schools again next year because of an €18 million shortfall in government funding, a report to the Department of Education warns.
Some schools could have to raise up to €250,000 just to provide the same services as those in schools fully funded by the State, according to the pre-budget submission of the Joint Managerial Body (JMB).
The JMB represents the boards of the 394 schools in the voluntary secondary sector, run or previously run by the religious orders.
Unlike the remaining 340 second level schools in the vocational, community and comprehensive sectors — which have the costs of insurance, caretakers and secretarial support covered by the State — voluntary secondary schools must pay these from their day-to-day budgets.
All second-level schools receive €331 for every student to cover running costs, totalling around €150,000 for the average 450-student school. But the JMB estimates that they are €98 short for every student compared to those in the other sectors after paying for insurance and ancillary staff.
Despite a commitment in the Programme for Government to bridge this gap within two years, only €15 extra was given in the budget last December. The JMB said the next two budgets should provide the €17.6m extra needed to give them equal funding.
"Steep increases in the cost of heat, energy, phones, water, classroom materials and cleaning has put an intolerable burden on schools trying to make ends meet. More and more of them are forced to engage in fund-raising or seek voluntary contributions from parents to survive," said JMB general secretary Ferdia Kelly.
"The stark reality is that voluntary secondary schools have to raise more than 30% of annual expenditure through fundraising and parents' contributions, that's as much as €240,000 for a large school of around 800 pupils," he said.
He said the principal of a medium-sized school paid €20,000 for oil this week but was unsure if it would meet the school's winter heating needs. All schools must also use their capitation funding to pay the annual €3.50 charge per pupil payable to local authorities for water which was introduced last Christmas and rises to €4 next year.
The JMB is also seeking more teachers to reduce class sizes, increased spending on school buildings and a start to the €252 million school computers commitments in the National Development Plan.
Meanwhile, an advisory body to Education Minister Batt O'Keeffe has slammed his decision this week to shut down the Centre for Early Childhood Development and Education. The National Council for Curriculum and Assessment said it created uncertainty about the early learning framework it had recently developed, and jeopardised the considerable public money, agency time and expertise invested in it.
