Back to school: parents under pressure as bills loom despite ‘free’ education

It’s funny how even the most golden-tinged of summer days still harbour that uncomfortable skin prickle. Even though it’s many years since it has meant “back to school” for me; the shorter evenings, ripening blackberries and, yes, even the Rose of Tralee, foreshadow this milestone event.

Yet these days it is not just children who experience back-to-school blues. The financial pressures involved in getting children ready for school causes anguish and hardship for thousands of parents every September.

More than 1,400 parents took Barnardos’ school costs survey this summer, detailing the expenses they face and the impact they have on them. In 2015, the average cost of getting a child ready for senior infants (including clothing, footwear, school books, classroom resources and voluntary contributions) is €365. This rises to a staggering €785 for parents of first-year students. These are by no means insignificant expenses.

This is the 10th anniversary of the survey and, over the years, parents have consistently told us about the sacrifices they have to make to ensure their child has everything covered. This includes having the right uniform, shoes, sports kit, school books, stationery, voluntary contributions, cash to cover classroom resources, and other costs incurred along the way.

Some parents are forgoing paying essential bills and drastically reducing their spending on food. Some are even forced to borrow heavily and get into debt, with one in 10 primary school parents and nearly one in five secondary school parents telling us they have to resort to taking out loans to cover school costs.

There is genuine outrage from working parents that, despite being in full-time employment, they still struggle to make ends meet at back-to-school time.

Parents in receipt of social welfare payments can feel the strain even more acutely. At €200 for secondary students and €100 for primary pupils, the back to school clothing and footwear allowance for low-income families covers just a fraction of the costs involved. Parents described to us how this strain seeps into every aspect of their lives and how there is no escape from the worry.

A common theme this year is the impact school costs have in the context of other rising costs, such as rent and childcare.

Food or books?

These are the words of one parent who answered our survey: “I’m on my own with two teenagers going into first year and fifth year. Their new books have come to €700 alone. I work part-time and spend months worrying about how I’m going to afford getting them back to school. I cut back as much as I can to the point I don’t do much of a grocery shop and try to manage on basic food.” Her sentiments were echoed by the hundreds who took part.

The great risk is of families being forced into a debt cycle, forever borrowing from Peter to pay Paul, just so their children can access our supposedly free education system. This is not just unsustainable for the families involved, it is deeply unfair. It also makes a mockery of our constitutional commitment to provide free primary education for all.

And parents are aware of this injustice. They feel stressed, fed-up and in despair trying to cope with the costs. They recognise their child’s right to education and are acutely aware they are being forced to pay for something so fundamental, which they rightly feel should be provided by the State.

“Education is meant to be free and to date I don’t see how that can be the true, every child is entitled to education, no matter their background and I think it is unfair that parents have to fork out hundreds to get children back to school,” said another parent in our survey.

While parent pressure has had some impact, the trouble is the Government’s piecemeal approach. In order to have a meaningful impact, there must be comprehensive changes which will only come from increased investment in the education system. For example, we have called on the Department of Education to issue a directive on school uniform policy for all schools to standardise the approach and make it fairer for parents.

Apart from the issue of school uniforms, perhaps the most frustrating thing of all is that there is a solution to the range of issues families face. A solution which is affordable and practical and one which would benefit families across the country.

This summer, survey after survey was published telling us the true cost of Ireland’s supposedly “free” education. It is time we said enough is enough. It is very clear our education system is underfunded and under-resourced and it is unfair to put schools under this strain and expect parents to plug the gaps.

Time to act

Barnardos is calling on the Department of Education to take a firm lead and invest in education to remove the burden from schools and parents. We know – because she has told us – that Minister for Education Jan O’Sullivan wants to do more.

Well, an investment of just €103.2 million would deliver truly free primary education; it would ensure free school books, classroom resources and school transport for all pupils, remove the need for voluntary contributions and restore capitation grants to 2010 levels. All for an extra investment of just €185 per pupil. Or to put it another way, it’s about €1.25 in every €100 the Department of Education spends now.

There is no better use of this money than investing in education – it will improve outcomes for our children, educate our future workforce and, more immediately, relieve the annual financial pressure parents face every September. Providing truly free education for all children in Ireland would be a transformative – and very cheap – investment in all our futures.

Pippa Woolnough is advocacy campaigns officer at Barnardos