Cash-strapped schools turn to charities for help

ALMOST half of second-level schools are forced to ask for handouts from charity organisations including St Vincent de Paul to help less well-off students because they are so poorly funded, research has found.

In a survey of 193 schools on educational disadvantage, 86 said they have asked the Society of St Vincent de Paul (SVP) for help with students who cannot afford uniforms or books.

Schools also reported that they sought funding from religious charities attached to their schools, community associations, businesses and other local organisations.

A significant number said they funded home-school liaison services and resource teaching from within their own budgets, as well as using fundraising to provide poor families with financial support, book-lending schemes and other services.

Áine O’Neill, chair of the National Association Principals and Deputy Principals (NAPD) Disadvantage Committee, which carried out the study, said the situation reflected the insufficient public funding given to second-level schools.

The survey asked principals to identify the resources they availed of to help their disadvantaged students. Less than one-in-five of the schools were in areas designated as highly disadvantaged.

The SVP was listed as the fourth most frequent source of help, after the allocation of resource teaching hours, health board support and special needs assistants.

“That is an indictment of the funding situation for our schools, to think that State supports were not enough to help so many students with the normal costs of education,” said Ms O’Neill.

“It’s symptomatic of the base underfunding of education, not just at second level, that parents have to get help from charities with books or uniforms.

“There are grants available through schools and social welfare, but they are not enough,” she said.

Learning difficulties, special needs and family trauma were the main manifestations of educational disadvantage reported by principals and their deputies.

However, they also said behaviour problems, disability, pregnancy and substance abuse were factors making it more difficult for young people to benefit from education.