SVP petitions minister to set up schoolbook rental scheme

THE St Vincent de Paul is to meet with the Minister for Education in the coming weeks to try and convince him to help families who are struggling to cope with the cost of schoolbooks which it has branded “crazy and unnecessary”.

According to its estimates, by the time they leave school, a family with four children could have spent as much as €3,200 on secondary schoolbooks alone, that most of the time can’t even be reused.

The SVP said the constant flow of unnecessary new editions means that families are forced to keep forking out for new texts, while tonnes of books end up being dumped.