Parents being forced to take out loans for school costs [Independent.ie]
- Published: 02 August 2011
Parents are being forced to take out loans to meet the spiralling costs of sending their children back to school, a charity has said.
Barnardo's children's charity warned books and uniforms are as much as €350 for junior infant pupils and can rise to €805 for teenagers starting secondary school.
Chief executive Fergus Finlay said families are struggling to meet the costs as prices increase.
"Even for those parents in receipt of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance the shortfall between these costs and the amount they receive can leave them struggling to afford school costs," he said.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
Back to school costs rising - Barnardos [IrishTimes]
- Published: 02 August 2011
The strict criteria surrounding back to school allowances are excluding families who need them, according to Barnardos.
In its annual School Costs Survey, the children’s charity revealed that the average cost of sending a child to junior infants this year is €350, rising to €805 for a student starting secondary school.
Despite the recession, the majority of respondents to the survey of over 500 parents said that this represented a rise in costs.
“My husband is unemployed and I am on minimum wage, yet we still don’t qualify for the (back to school clothing and footwear) allowance,” one parent quoted in the survey said. “It’s disgraceful it is so hard to make sure our children are provided for.”
Another parent complained that it is costing €1,800 to send her three children to school this September. “My husband is currently unemployed and we are really being stretched to meet the costs,” the woman was quoted as saying. “We had to get a loan from the credit union to send our children to school – it’s a joke.”
Full Story: www.irishtimes.com
Textbook publishers offer to cut reprints [schooldays.ie]
- Published: 01 August 2011
Rising costs has prompted leading publishers of school books to offer to revise current editions less frequently.
The Sunday Times reports the firms have written to Education Minister Ruairi Quinn stating they will not publish any new versions of the books "within at least four years".
All eight are members of the Irish Educational Publishers Association and the move is a response to growing criticism from parents, who are concerned about how much they need to send to purchase curriculum materials for their children.
Full Story: www.schooldays.ie
Charity inundated with school cost pleas [IrishExaminer]
- Published: 01 August 2011
THE Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) is being inundated with appeals for financial assistance as students prepare to return to classes and lecture halls.
Professor John Monaghan, SVP’s vice-president with responsibility for social justice, welcomed the move by Social Protection Minister Joan Burton to make automatic payment of the back-to-school clothing and footwear allowance to previous recipients and end the long delays.
"But one of the big problems is for families not eligible for the school uniform allowance, because they are just above the income limits or they do not get a social welfare payment but are in low-paying jobs," he said.
The number of calls from households seeking financial assistance jumped from 26,000 in 2008 to 47,000 last year in SVP’s Dublin region alone.
Full Story: www.examiner.ie
Publishers help ease book cost burden for parents [Independent.ie]
- Published: 01 August 2011
PUPILS will again be able to pass their schoolbooks on to younger siblings under new measures being introduced to reduce the financial burden on parents.
Among the initiatives is an agreement by publishers not to revise any edition of a book within four years of publication, and that the book will remain in print throughout the four years.
A recent survey found that books for a child in primary school cost an average of €125 a year, with the cost rising to €238 a year for a child in secondary school.
However, this is expected to fall from next year after the Irish Educational Publishers Association (IEPA) agreed a new code of practice that means pupils can pass on their books to younger siblings and parents can sell them on the secondhand market.
Full Story: www.independent.ie
