More than 8,500 people signed the Cut the costs of School Books Petition.
This has had a massive effect according to Society of St Vincent de
Paul (SVP), which organised the petition, and TD's from around the
country have shown their support when the issue was debated in the Dáil.
"We will be actively exploring from the following academic year the
benefits of a book lending scheme in schools. The area of school
uniforms will also be closely looked at - especially when schools advise
parents they can only buy them from specific outlets,” said Minister
Quinn
during the debate.
He added that generic grey, blue, green and red uniforms are sold in
large retail stores and if schools sold just the crest or emblem the
costs would be greatly reduced.
Also during the debate Fine Gael Dublin Mid-West deputy Derek Keating
said parents can often face costs of around €600 per child in
September.
This includes the so-called voluntary fee that parents pay
and the cost of photocopying and extra-curricular activities.
For a
family with a few children this could add up to €2,000 for 2011-2012.
The petition prompted action from Tesco who, in partnership with SVP,
will run the Back To School campaign from August 1 for two weeks.
Tesco has promised that for every €20 spent on back to school clothing,
they will donate €5 to SVP.
Customers do not have to buy an item to help; they can still support
the campaign by giving a €3.50 donation at Tesco checkouts nationwide.
The SVP petition was launched at the end of May when the charity
estimated that by the time the children leave school, a family with four
children could have spent as much as €3,200 on secondary school books
alone.
SVP highlighted that the many unnecessary new editions means that
families are forced to keep paying for new texts – many of which cannot
be reused and will end up in the bin.
SVP proposed a book rental scheme for Ireland, similar to those in
European schools, where they buy the books and rent or loan them out to
students in return for a small fee or deposit.
Such a scheme would lift
some of the burden off families who are struggling financially.