Parents shoring up school finances

Parents of students at half of religious-owned secondary schools are paying over €150 a year to make up for public funding shortages, research shows.

Funding differences between different school types have been highlighted for many years by the voluntary secondary sector, which make up 375 of the 721 second-level schools.

An Oireachtas committee was told last year that they get €90 less per student from the Government than the 93 community and comprehensive (C&C) schools and €212 less than vocational schools.

A report, published today by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), confirms those arguments but said it is difficult to quantify the differences.

It points out, however, that only half of the 253 schools run by education and training boards (ETBs) ask parents for voluntary contributions, and fewer than two thirds of C&C schools do so. But 87% of voluntary secondary schools seek them, with half asking for €150 or more each year, compared to a range of €50 to €75 requested by schools in the other sectors.

“The reliance of voluntary secondary schools on parental contributions puts them at a disadvantage in the context of the current recession. The future funding of second-level schools needs to take this into account,” wrote ESRI researchers Merike Darmody and Emer Smyth.

These schools get €301 for every student in an annual capitation grant from the Department of Education, but ETBs are allocated a block grant and then distribute funds to their schools, while C&C schools negotiate a budget with the department each year.

While voluntary schools pay insurance from their capitation, ETBs pay it centrally for all their schools and C&C schools are covered by State indemnity.

In addition, ETBs pay for non-teaching staff but secretarial and caretaking costs are not fully covered by grants for the voluntary secondary sector. The ESRI’s survey of principals also found that voluntary schools are more likely to spend their capitation grant on secretarial services, lighting, security, and insurance.

The department said it would study the report in the context of future policy development in the areas it covers.

The representative body for ETB schools said the larger proportion of voluntary schools that ask parents for funding reflects the fact a significant number are in better-off communities.

School payments

* One-in-five voluntary secondary schools ask parents for at least €200 a year.

* One-in-10 of all second-level schools dropped at least one subject in the past year because of funding cuts.

* Fewer than half of disadvantaged (DEIS) second-level schools request contributions from parents, compared with 73% of other schools.

* Proportion of income from parents: Voluntary secondary schools — 12%; Other second-level schools — 5%-6%.