Ms Áine Lynch:

The National Parents Council Primary welcomes the opportunity to submit its views to the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Skills on the advantages and disadvantages of textbook rental schemes in schools, the use of technology for educational purposes and the possible necessity of parents and guardians resorting to moneylenders. First, we draw members' attention to the issue of culture within the primary education system in the context of the role played by parents in their children's education and how financial issues can impact on this important responsibility.

Research indicates that the involvement of parents in their children's learning is vital in ensuring that they obtain the optimum benefit from their education. As a result, it is important that the educational relationship between schools and parents is not only protected but further enhanced. Financial communications and requests from schools to parents can significantly harm the home-school relationship. When tension exists between the home and school due to financial requests, the parent-teacher relationship can be damaged. This may prevent the development of the important relationship between the parent and the teacher that supports a child's learning. A parent who feels pressure and stress to meet payment requests from his or her child's school may be reluctant to approach it regarding educational issues relating to his or her child.

Parental involvement in children's education is also important in the context of improving educational outcomes for children. However, parents' associations spend the majority of their time engaging with schools at a funding level rather than an educational one. When parents' associations were first defined in the Education Act, it was in the context of advising the principal and board of management of a school on any matter relating that school. It is also stated in the Act that said principal and board, as the case may be, should have regard to such advice and adopt a programme of activities which will promote the involvement of parents in consultation with the principal in the operation of the school. The Act does not refer to fundraising, which, as we know, is the key activity of parents' associations. The culture within the education system which sees parents as a key funding resource rather than a purely educational support for children needs to be addressed. This will require a societal prioritisation for education that sees the value of a fully-funded system for a society which supports equality of opportunity for all.

In 2013, the Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection recommended the development of a five-year template for the delivery of a system whereby schoolbooks would be entirely free of charge. The NPC welcomed and supported this because it would have made a significant impact in terms of reducing back-to-school costs for parents. If the recommendation had been implemented, we would be starting the second school year with no book costs for parents. It is unfortunate that the recommendation was not acted on. The NPC believes that book rental schemes have had a positive impact on the costs for parents of children attending primary school. It also believes that the schemes do not address all of the issues regarding educational and reference resources for children in school. Six years on from the making of the recommendation in 2013, the NPC feels that a more comprehensive review should be undertaken to establish the most appropriate educational and reference resources that will support children's learning in view of the changing world in which we live and the changing primary school curriculum. The debate in this regard centres on accepting that the current provision offers what children need. In an ever-changing world of information and resource availability, and in light of the redevelopment of the primary curriculum, the NPC believes that a complete examination should be undertaken in this area. We should move on from the debate on who should pay for the books and start discussing and exploring the best supports for children's learning which take into account all of the different opportunities available, including books, teaching methodologies, technology, etc.

The NPC has regularly consulted parents on the issue of technology in education over the past number of years. While safety is always a consideration, parents have consistently told the NPC that they think technology is important in their children's learning and they have concerns regarding the current provision. In particular, parents of children with special educational needs have gone so far as to say that technology has the potential to level the educational playing field for their children. The 2016 the NPC survey showed that 78% of parents wanted more access to computers and computing for their children, with only 15% of parents saying that they did not.

The next issue relates to the possible necessity of parents and guardians to resort to moneylenders to meet the basic costs of educating their children. The NPC is aware of parents who feel that they need to approach moneylenders in order to pay for their children's education and we would like to raise a number of issues in this regard. First, seeking loans from moneylenders is one of the many options that parents choose or resort to in order to meet their children's school costs. Other options include bank loans, loans from friends and relatives, skipping meals due a lack of money, choosing not to pay household bills, etc. All of these options that parents feel forced to make are equally wrong in a modern society that purports to have a free education system.

Second, there is no such thing as a school asking parents for money and there being no pressure on them to pay. For some parents experiencing financial stresses, another request for money that they do not have represents pressure. The act of a school asking parents for money puts them under pressure and creates stress.

Third is the basic cost of educating a child. Do children need a uniform to be educated? Do they need a list of schoolbooks? Do they need to fund a school through voluntary and other contributions? In answering these questions, it is difficult to find the basic cost versus the costs being asked of parents. What is the difference between a cost that is about supporting an individual child for a parent versus a cost that is propping up the education system?

I finally reiterate that a parent's relationship with their child's school should relating to their child's learning and education and not finances.