Joe Sherlock (Cork East, Labour)
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Question 92: To ask the Minister for Education and Science if she will take action to prevent publishers of school books from reprinting text books with minor textual changes, forcing parents and schools to discard expensive books after a short period of time; and if she will make a statement on the matter. [19681/05]

Mary Hanafin (Dún Laoghaire, Fianna Fail)
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Apart from a small number of prescribed texts at second level, mainly in the case of language subjects, school books are not approved or prescribed by my Department at first or second level. Decisions on which books to use are taken at school level.

School authorities have been advised that book selections should be changed only to the extent that is necessary. However, text books have to be changed periodically to enable students' work to be kept educationally stimulating and to ensure that content and methodology are kept up to date.

My Department operates a grant scheme towards the cost of providing school text books for pupils from low-income families in schools at first and second level. For the purposes of these grants, a needy pupil is a pupil from a family where there is genuine hardship because of unemployment, prolonged illness of a parent, large family size with inadequate means, single parenthood, or other family circumstances such as substance abuse, which would indicate a similar degree of financial hardship. Principal teachers administer the book grant schemes in schools in a flexible way under the terms of the schemes based on their knowledge of particular circumstances in individual cases. Many schools operate book rental schemes and second-hand book exchanges.

A total of €3,961,683.89 was paid by my Department in respect of the school books grant scheme in primary schools for the 2004-05 school year. This figure includes €3,272,733.40 in respect of the loan-rental scheme.

The total expenditure in post-primary schools for the 2004-05 school year was €6.359 million, which includes €221,240 in respect of the book rental-loan schemes seed capital.