Schools and colleges will feel left behind by measures in budget

The bulk of announcements in this year’s education budget share one key aim: easing the costs facing hundreds of thousands of students and families.

The numbers who stand to benefit are striking. The move to extend free schoolbooks to Junior Cycle at second level will benefit more than 210,000 students and their families, and is worth just over €310 per student. The decision to retain last year’s “once-off” €1,000 cut to the €3,000 student registration charge at third level will ease costs for 100,000 students and their families.

Could there, whisper it, be an election somewhere on the horizon?

It will come as a relief to many hard-pressed families who have been saddled with considerable costs each September despite the fiction that our education systems are “free”.

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Hefty costs remain, of course. Parents will still face voluntary contributions, school uniform costs, hefty charges for iPads and after-school activities among other sources of expenditure.

The move to free schoolbooks at least means Ireland is catching up with many of our near neighbours who have provided these supports for decades. The exclusion of students attending fee-charging second-level schools from the free books scheme, meanwhile, is the latest in a series of measures aimed at heaping more charges on the private sector.

While there is plenty to cheer about among families, the same can’t be said in schools or universities.

School managers have warned that many are at risk of financial insolvency in the face of rising costs, while universities say underfunding has resulted in larger classes, reduced access to laboratories, equipment and tutorials. All described the budget as a lost opportunity to get their finances on a more sustainable footing.

Schools, in fact, will get less additional funding compared to last year to deal with high running costs such as heating and electricity. Last year, for example, an additional €90 million was allocated to schools in a “once-off” measure, which was equivalent to a 40 per cent increase in school capitation. This year an additional €81 million is being allocated to schools. (About €61 million is another once-off measure, while the remainder will be used to increase core school capitation rates to pre-2011 levels). While officials argue that inflation is running lower and funds will go further, schools will inevitably see it as a cut.

The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation is convinced it is not enough for schools to make ends meet and parents will continue to prop up the system. “While today’s budget announces some extra money for schools, they will still be expected to fundraise to meet basic expenses, and parents will still be relied upon to keep schools afloat,” said INTO general secretary John Boyle.

“The low level of primary school funding places intolerable burdens on school principals, teachers and parents and further disadvantages pupils in Deis schools. Funding must reflect the real operating costs of primary schools.”

Other teachers’ unions such as the Teachers’ Union of Ireland and the Association of Secondary Teachers’ Ireland say the lack of funding for middle-management posts will do nothing to boost teacher recruitment and retention.

Universities also argue that they remain hugely underfunded and are struggling to maintain a pipeline of highly-skilled graduates.

Minister for Further and Higher Education Simon Harris said an additional €60 million is being made available in core funding for universities. However, universities say this falls well short of the Government’s own promise, and say a failure to unlock the growing €1.5 billion surplus in the National Training Fund is a missed opportunity.

Last year the Government itself confirmed there was a €307 million annual shortfall in core funding of universities. The Irish Universities Association notes that between last year (€40m) and this year’s (€60m) budget barely one-third of that shortfall has been delivered.

“We fully recognise the positive moves on reducing higher education costs for students but it doesn’t work if you make it more affordable for students to go into universities that are still underfunded by more than €200 million per year,” said president of University of Limerick, Prof Kerstin Mey, who chairs the association’s council. “It seems bizarre that the €1.5 billion National Training Fund surplus continues to grow while there are skills shortages across every part of the public and private sector.”

It many respects, then, it is a tale of two education budgets: contented families and exasperated education institutions.

No prizes for guessing which has the most voters.