‘We’re being discriminated against’

Parents and staff at a 318-pupil school are angry that their fundraising to set up a rental scheme a decade ago and careful management of the funds count for nothing.

Since raising €14,500 to start their book scheme in 2004, parents at St Mary’s National School in Cobh, Co Cork, have been paying €20 per child each year, or €35 for families with two or more pupils enrolled.

However, principal Alice O’Connell said what is really annoying people is that they will have to continue funding any expansion themselves.

“In years when we’re not replenishing school stock, we keep the money and save it to buy books the next year. We’ve been very prudent,” she said.

“We started it up on our own, carefully making sure the money was in place to occasionally replace books and now, we’re being punished and discriminated against for it because we had the focus and energy to do it.”

Most of the €6,000 needed to replace all English books this year should be covered by rental income and the smaller annual book grant, which will provide nearly €3,500. But if the school is to do the same for maths books, it will have to turn to parents yet again.

The issue was discussed by the school parents’ association this week and chairwoman, Aideen Owens, said there was a real feeling they were being treated unfairly.

“Instead of making all this new funding available to people who don’t have a scheme in place, maybe a reduced rate could be given for schools with one already,” said Ms Owens, who has three children at the school and a daughter previously educated there.

While the general book grant from the Department of Education is a help to keep the rental system going, she said it still requires some fundraising every year.

“We had a big fair before Christmas and some of the other events this year will help fund buses to the feis; renting a hall for sports; or replacing bulbs in the whiteboards.”

Irish National Teachers’ Organisation general secretary, Sheila Nunan, said Education Minister Ruairi Quinn has thrown the hard work of parents and schools who fundraised to set up schemes back in their faces.

“Many schools would question why they would expand rental schemes in such circumstances. The policy is lazy, based on unreliable information and has more to do with ticking a box than ensuring any degree of fairness.”