Bruton may not deliver on school fund vow; Parents and communities making up €46m cash shortfall

Education Minister Richard Bruton is in danger of failing to deliver a 2016 Government commitment to increase funding for schools, which are being subsidised by parents and local communities to the tune of €46m a year.

The figure has been estimated by consultants as the amount raised locally every year in the primary sector alone, with smaller schools facing the biggest deficits due to shortfalls in public funding.

While school leaders, teachers and parents have been calling for several years for the reversal of recession-era cutbacks to Department of Education grants, Mr Bruton said it is just one of several competing demands he must consider.

He said in an RTÉ Radio 1 interview that there is a commitment in the 2016 Programme for Government to increase these capitation grants which schools use to pay bills, buy teaching materials, and cover other running costs. However, with no guarantee that the current Government will last long enough to deliver a 2020 budget at the end of next year, this could be Mr Bruton’s last opportunity to meet the promise.

A year ago, the minister hinted that extra funding could be given to schools that do more to help reduce costs for parents by, for example, reviewing policies around uniforms or books. However, it was unclear how this could be monitored nationally, or when any such increases might be provided.

Responding to the figures in the survey for the Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA), Mr Bruton said he has to weigh up legitimate demands across the education sector.

For this year’s budget, he said, he decided to put extra teachers and special needs assistants into schools to help cater for rising enrolments. He said he and colleagues will sit down later in the year and see what extra money will be needed and where he can provide different shares of any additional funding provided to the Department of Education.

The CPSMA called on Mr Bruton to immediately restore the grant from €170 a year for each primary pupil to the previous level of €200.

“There is no way you can run a school on the 92c per pupil per day provided by the Government. Buy a child a Snickers bar and you’ve blown the day’s budget,” said CPSMA general secretary Seamus Mulconry. “Buy a child a sliotar and you’ve not only blown the budget for the week, you’re in deficit. The minister wants the best education system in Europe, so do we. But if Ireland wants the best, we need to invest.”

The CPSMA survey was carried out by Grant Thornton with 140 schools, based proportionately on the numbers of primary schools of different sizes. Although schools managed to cut spending by 2% in 2016, their income fell by 4%.

The average school had running costs outside of teacher and other staff salaries amounting to €91,000 but received just under €46,000, or just over half, from the capitation grant. However, while 61% of the cost is met by capitation for schools with more than 500 pupils, those with less than 200 pupils only have 42% of their spending covered. These small schools account for nearly two thirds of the country’s primary schools.

The €46m covers money that schools fundraise or generate from so-called voluntary contributions from parents. These payments are requested by 55% of national schools, according to a survey released in January by the Irish Primary Principals Network.