Primary education is not free, but would be for an extra €103m a year

For thousands of families in Ireland the notion of free primary education is a joke, writes Fergus Finlay

THE exams are ending and children are readying for their holidays. With luck, we may have a summer like last year’s, when Ireland was the best place to be.

But in the back of parents’ minds, the worries about late August and early September are beginning: uniforms, books, new shoes, sports equipment, the cost of the school bus. Some homes already have the book list, so they can begin to tot up the cost. Some homes already have a begging letter from their school, outlining the voluntary contribution it desperately needs from parents.

Next month, for the tenth time, the organisation I work for, Barnardos, will publish our annual school-costs survey. Last year, 2,000 parents took part, and the costs they incurred were frightening: €345 for a child in senior infants, €380 for a child in fourth class, €735 for a child starting secondary school. It’s not hard to spend €1,000 if several children need to be equipped for school.

Costs have remained reasonably static for the last few years — helped, in part, by a responsible initiative by school-book publishers, who have not been gratuitous in changing text books. Many schools have gone to great lengths to set up school-book rental schemes — I was in a school a couple of weeks ago where they hoped to lend the children all their textbooks, for a contribution of €40 each. Many schools have moderated their demands around expensive items like crested jumpers.

But we know from our day-to-day experience what a burden this places on families. We know that some families go into debt at this time of year to give their children the best possible start. We also know families who just can’t raise everything that’s needed.

It’s wrong, and it’s not necessary. In fact, this cost, imposed year after year by the system, is at the very least a moral breach of the only constitutional right given to every child in Ireland.

Article 42 of our Constitution says (among other things): “The State shall, however, as guardian of the common good, require in view of actual conditions that the children receive a certain minimum education, moral, intellectual and social … The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative …” There’s always been fierce argument about the meaning of those words. The State has argued in court that there’s a fundamental difference between providing ‘for’ free primary education and providing free primary education. I don’t know what the courts would say if you sued the State because parents pay so much for something that is supposed to be free, as a matter of right for every child.

But I do know that for thousands of families the notion of free primary education is a joke.

And why isn’t it necessary for the State to play that joke on families every year, especially families that are stretched to the pin of their collar?

Because we can afford genuinely free primary education in all the ways that matter most.

According to the Government’s Comprehensive Expenditure Review, we invest €8bn a year in educating our young people. That’s probably the single most important investment we make in all our futures. A re-orientation of 1% of that budget would make primary education free in its essentials. Just like it is in Northern Ireland, the UK, and a great many other jurisdictions in the OECD.

We calculate that the additional cost of free primary education is €103m per annum. That investment would enable all school books to be freely available, it would eliminate the need for voluntary contributions, it would cover the cost of additional classroom resources, and it would provide free transport for every child in primary school.

In other words, it would enable the State to honour its constitutional obligation to its children — and in the year we celebrate the Proclamation’s centenary it would strike a significant blow for equality for all children.

Of course, it’s an investment. Of course, it would require that amount of additional spending — and some investment of management time and expertise. But is it possible to think of another investment the State could make that would yield a bigger return?

A few years ago, when we were flush with cash, we weren’t thinking of investing in education. Back then, we wanted to build a super-duper prison. Thornton Hall, we called it. It was going to be built at enormous expense. But, more to the point, it was going to cost €100m a year to run, with its 1,200 prisoners.

That would have been €1bn a decade for the first ten years of the prison’s operation. And in its second decade, we would have started to populate it with the children and young people we neglect today.

Maybe austerity saved us from Thornton Hall. But all over the world, far-sighted policy-makers realise that the one thing that makes prisons less necessary is education. The earlier the investment, the greater the return. A good primary education, coupled with quality access to pre-school, yields enormous dividends to the State — lower welfare costs and dependency, lower involvement in crime and anti-social behaviour, higher participation in the jobs market.

The studies prove beyond doubt that, even if you’re only looking at it from a hard-nosed ‘bang for buck’ perspective, the best way to get a return from people is by giving them the best possible start in life.

But education is about far more than that. It’s the key to growth, to development, to full citizenship, to opportunity, to equality. Education is the way to transform society and to generate hope and optimism.

The last thing education should be about is struggle and worry. And yet we know that for thousands of parents (and we’re not talking about families below the poverty line) the costs associated with starting children at school are an endless source of stress. In a growing economy that will produce a significant budget surplus at the end of the year, the investment we’re looking for is tiny — especially set against the returns it will yield.

I can’t think of a better way for Ireland to make a fresh start. The introduction of free secondary education, in the 1960s, was one of the springboards for Ireland’s success in the years that followed, and helped us to build a strong economic platform. Let’s make that last 1% jump now.

For thousands of families in Ireland the notion of free primary education is a joke