Parents and students make up for school cutbacks

PARENTS and students are being forced to pay for a significant chunk of education cutbacks through increased school donations and payments for regular school activities, a survey of second-level schools has found.

As well as the loss of teachers, some subjects and programmes being dropped and fewer staff to do administrative work, schools are reporting that they have had to increase voluntary contributions charged to parents.

While the figures being charged are not published in the survey of 20 schools by the Association of Secondary Teachers Ireland (ASTI), one said that it doubled the fee this year from €40 to €90, which is still considerably less than what is charged by many schools. Half of the surveyed schools said they had to increase the voluntary contribution sought from parents, while 80% have introduced student charges for specific activities, including the purchase of materials for home economic and science classes.