Ms Áine Lynch:

I agree that we should deal with it through the parent-student charter, but I would hate the parent-student charter to be a list of areas that we dealt with. I think it is more about setting the relationship between parents and children in schools. The parent-student charter should be drafted so that it can deal with the weight of schoolbags or any other issue that comes in. However, if it becomes a list, it will dampen the impact of such a charter.

The issue of photocopying of pages comes up quite regularly from parents. They buy a schoolbook and then have to pay to have the pages photocopied to be sent home as well. Parents often get a yearly charge for photocopying. As a practical solution, at one level it works, but how it is implemented can cause frustration for parents. It comes back to the point that it is very hard to look at weight without looking at other issues as well. It has been mentioned a few times around the homework issue. We are about to embark on research with the NCCA on what the nature of homework should be in primary years.

Deputy Lisa Chambers asked what we were looking for. At primary level we are clearly stating that we are looking for a view on how much textbooks are needed and relied on; that is it. If we muddy the waters with weights, costs or what homework should look like, we keep missing the point. We raise it at every opportunity we can, not just for the weight of schoolbags or the cost of schoolbags, but the educational benefit for children as well.

The curriculum at primary level is set for a certain type of learning; that is experiential learning, learning in groups and experiencing the subject, starting where the learner is at. Those things do not tend to go towards textbook-type learning. Whereas certain textbooks may be needed at primary level, the question is whether we need as many as we have. Rather than keep talking about the cost, we need to start talking about what is required for children's education at primary level in order for them to have the best education they can have.

Parents often tell us that they buy quite heavy and expensive books, but that only a fraction of them are used. These are the kinds of issues we need to address. If we just concentrate on one particular problem with a textbook, we may not finish up with the right answer. That is the most direct way I can answer the question of what we are looking for.

There is no minimum standard for schoolbags. It is very much up to a parent and child. They can bring them in a carrier bag if they want to. I agree with Mr. Beddy that the concentration on the current fashion with bags has a huge part to play. The survey asked parents about waist straps. Very few parents responded that they had backpacks with waist straps. There are no standards or even recommendations. Parents do not get a list of the types of things they should think of when buying a school bag and cost also comes into it.

Is there too much homework and is the level of homework correct? We need to look again at the type of homework. We would argue that when children are learning at home it gives a much richer environment to the classroom environment. Children do not have to sit behind a desk; they can learn in different styles. However, children's homework still tends to go along the lines of siting at a table, looking at a book and learning in that way. So if children do not learn particularly well using that style, they are not given other opportunities to learn or to learn within the rich environment outside the classroom. The type of homework needs to be looked at and that would impact on whether a child needs a textbook at home to do the homework.

On examples of good practice, in Ireland it is very teacher-specific, meaning that each teacher decides their own booklist. Some teachers might have a very small booklist, with just a reader on it. It does not mean that they are infants, or fifth or sixth class; it might just be their style of teaching to the curriculum. Because it is so teacher-specific, there are excellent examples of good practice with some teachers and then there are other teachers who are very reliant on the textbook. The NCCA's own review of the curriculum at primary level and other reports would indicate that textbooks can be linked to teacher confidence in subject areas, particularly when it comes to science and other areas. Reports indicate that much of children's science learning is done from a textbook rather than experiential learning within the classroom. That can be linked in certain cases to teacher confidence.

Given that there are so many issues relating to textbooks, looking at the weight in isolation may be missing the larger point.