Primary schools ‘completely in the dark’ over free book scheme

Primary schools have been “left in the dark” about the implementation of a free book scheme to be rolled out in September, and there is “a significant risk” students will be without books at the start of the next academic year, it has been claimed.

The Minister for Education, Norma Foley, announced funding of €47 million in last September’s budget to provide free schoolbooks and “related classroom resources” to all 540,000 pupils attending primary schools. Guidelines for the scheme are being finalised.

However, concern is mounting that publishing deadlines are being missed as a result of confusion about how the scheme will operate.

“We are bewildered and completely in the dark,” said Enda McGorman, principal of the Mary Mother of Hope national school in Dublin 15. “We have no idea how it will work, how it is going to be implemented, and how much of this is going to fall to individual principals in schools.”

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He noted that there had been talk of schools repurposing existing book rental schemes but pointed out that while one is in operation in his school, it is already “a monumental job”.

“It doesn’t just happen,” he said. “My concern is that there isn’t the planning in place already.”

He said free books were clearly a positive step, but the scheme ran the risk of repeating past mistakes. “Look at what they did with free transport last year. That was another great idea but it often meant that the people who needed it just couldn’t get a place if people who didn’t need it had a place.”

Bookselling Ireland – the umbrella group representing Irish bookshops – has warned that the direction being taken by the Department “ignores both the serious concerns and the recommendations of key stakeholders, and poses a significant risk that children will not have schoolbooks in time for the next school year in September”.

[ Free schoolbooks at primary and second level would cost €120m ]

Aoife Roantree of Dubray Books, outgoing chairwoman of the group, said it was unfair that schools were “in the dark at this point”.

“We had a meeting with the Irish Primary Principals’ Network and they said they have had less contact with the department than we have had and we’ve only had two meetings,” she said.

She expressed concern that the department will publish guidelines at the end of the month and provide funding before “handing it over to teachers and it will be up to them to run it”.

“Then come September when it is all a mess the department will say we engaged, we issued guidelines and paid the money so why haven’t you delivered? They are ticking the boxes without taking any advice on board.”

Ms Roantree said that as a result of the uncertainty across the sector, delays in publishing textbooks are likely.

“Normally at this point, publishers would be on their second print run because booksellers would have placed orders but it has been delayed by at least a month. And already this is not a normal year, everything is a bit slower and paper costs have gone through the roof and reprints that might have taken three weeks in the past are now taking more than six weeks,” she said.

She said she was “90 per cent certain that there will be a situation where classes and children won’t have the books ready for them”.

“The principle behind this is 100 per cent correct, we are just concerned with getting the delivery mechanism right,” she said.

A spokesman for the Department of Education said it had “engaged with all relevant stakeholders” about the scheme’s operation.

He said detailed guidance would be issued in advance of the Easter break, with the measure set to “build on the existing book rental schemes in place already in most schools”.

He added that schools would “continue to have autonomy to choose books that meet their curricular requirement [and would] be supported to implement the scheme in a way that has the best learning outcomes for pupils”.