Published: 29 August 2011

As hundreds of thousands of students prepare to go back to school, the Minister for Education and Skills, Ruairí Quinn, T.D., today announced a range of measures he is seeking from education book publishers to reduce the costs of school books for parents.

This is a significant departure from previous policy positions adopted by former Ministers for Education on this issue. Minister Quinn said that he was eager to implement his proposals, “Being a parent myself, I am very aware of the cost of school books and I have addressed this issue as a priority since taking office. In the current economic climate, it is important that we do everything that we can to assist parents with back to school costs. I expect that these proposals will ease these costs in the next school year.”

Some 514,600 primary school pupils and a further 322,500 secondary school students are heading back to the classroom this week after the summer break.

The new measures are being sought after the Minister recently held meetings with educational book publishers and representatives of parents’ organisations (the National Parents’ Council Primary and the National Parents’ Council Post- primary) and the Society of St. Vincent de Paul. Following these meetings, the publishers devised a voluntary Code of Practice.

Minister Quinn welcomed this Code of Practice as a significant step in the right direction for parents. But he believes that more can and should be done to reduce the price of textbooks. A recent Barnardos study found that back to school costs range from €350 for junior infants to €805 for second level students.

 Full Story: www.education.ie

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