Sir, – Barnardos’ Back to School Cost survey suggests that the cost of dressing and equipping a child for school ranges from €350 for an infant to €785 for a first year secondary student (Dick Ahlstrom, Home News, August 1st). The pressure this puts on struggling parents is appalling. It is also infuriating that so little is being done by the Department of Education and the school authorities generally to address it. I suggest that, given the choice, most struggling parents would prioritise this issue over anachronistic ideological concerns such as religious patronage.
Why the department cannot standardise texts for three to five years at a time, support the courses with online material to obviate the need for each student to purchase everything individually, and tackle the unutterable waste that constitute single use “workbooks” is baffling. With a little ingenuity and planning it is perfectly possible to go through university in Ireland and not buy more than a few second hand books – lectures, articles and chapters from books are put online for students through Moodle or Blackboard. Libraries usually provide access to all the necesary texts and references. Shared photocopying, scanning and downloading can minimise costs. If there was a will to do so, it is hardly beyond the ability of the educational authorities to extend this to first and second level – or for individual or groups of schools to take the initiative.
Whatever about the issue of books, intellectual property and copyright, there seems no excuse for inaction on the matter of school uniforms. One supermarket chain (Aldi) advertises a complete school uniform for €6.47 – a pleated skirt (€1.99) or trousers (€2), two plain polo shirts (€1.99) and a sweater (€2.49). They come in all the usual school colours and sizes. Marks & Spencer’s website on the other hand offers school skirts starting at €12, trousers €11-19, polo shirts from €4.00 and sweaters from €10 to 20. In other words even at this high end retailer one could kit out a child for little more than the cost of one crested sweater that Barnardos’ Back to School Cost Survey says starts at €45.
Were Ruairí Quinn to insist that schools unilaterally drop the “crested” branding of their uniforms and allow parents shop around for equivalent products from high street stores and supermarket chains, he would make a serious and welcome contribution to the welfare of parents and children. He might even salvage some votes for Labour. – Yours, etc,
MICHAEL ANDERSON,
Moyclare Close,
Baldoyle, Dublin 13.