Holly Cairns (Cork South West, Social Democrats)
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58. To ask the Minister for Education and Skills to provide details on the level of funding allocated to schools under the free schoolbook scheme, per pupil; the number of books and workbooks each child requires under the curriculum; and the current average market price of said books and workbooks. [27446/24]

Norma Foley (Kerry, Fianna Fail)
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In 2024 over €47 million was allocated to continue implementation of the schoolbooks scheme at primary level. On the 8th May I announced details of year 2 of the Primary Schoolbooks Scheme which provides at a minimum free schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks to pupils in recognised primary and special schools. More than 555,000 pupils enrolled in approximately 3,230 primary schools, including over 130 special schools will continue to benefit from this scheme.

Revised guidance for the 2024/25 school year was published on my Department’s website at www.gov.ie/schoolbookschemes and has issued to schools.

The grant is allocated on a per capita basis at a rate of €80 per pupil enrolled as of September 2023. Special schools that have students enrolled in Junior Cycle programmes have received funding at the Junior Cycle per capita rate of €309 per student set out under the new Junior Cycle Schoolbooks Scheme in respect of these students.

At a minimum the scheme funding is to provide schoolbooks, workbooks and copybooks for all children and young people enrolled in recognised primary schools and special schools. The scope of the scheme means that primary and special schools will continue to have autonomy to choose schoolbooks and related classroom resources that meet curricular requirements. In the case of special classes in primary schools, they have autonomy to choose resources that meet the learning needs of the pupils.

Schools are expected to adopt a cost-conscious approach to the selection of books for use in their classes. Apart from a small number of prescribed texts at post-primary level, determined by the National Council for Curriculum and Assessment (NCCA), the decisions on which textbooks, programmes and resources, if any, to use in primary and post-primary schools are taken at school level.

Therefore, the number or edition of schoolbook and/or workbook required by each pupil for individual subjects will be determined at a local level by each school.

My Department have no role in defining the cost of schoolbooks and workbooks as they are determined by individual publishers and booksellers.

As part of the on-going evaluation of the scheme, all schools will be asked to provide data on their expenditure in order to inform the guidance, implementation, costs and efficiency of the scheme for future years.