Every parent knows that September has become one of the most expensive months of the year. While free schoolbooks are welcome, many families now face growing costs for other items. Parents are being asked to purchase laptops that cost €400 or more, make increased payments for school transport and pay charges to cover examination fees. For hardworking families with two, three or four children travelling long distances to school, these costs add up very quickly. At the same time, schools are struggling because the capitation funding no longer covers basic day-to-day expenses. Education must be properly funded by Government. It cannot be left to parents and fundraising committees. The State must not create a two-tier system whereby only wealthier families can afford to fully cover their children's education. Another huge problem which normally arises in August is that relating to school buses. Parents have no way to get their children to school because of the nearest school rule. The current and previous programmes for Government contain promises that this will be done away with, but nothing has happened. The rule needs to be abolished. That has been promised over many years, but here we are again this year. Parents are on the phone begging me for tickets for school buses. One lady was on to me the other morning to say that her son is going into fifth class. He had a ticket for the past four years and now he does not have a ticket this year. The neighbours are the same situation. That is not good enough. We cannot just grab a ticket from a child who had a ticket before and then find some kind of an excuse as to why that happens. Education should not be measured by means of the distance someone lives from school, and school transport should not be measured on that basis either. I want to raise a matter that Councillor Bill Clear brought to my attention. It is a very serious issue regarding St. Corban’s National School in Naas in County Kildare. It stepped up when the Department came calling, faced with a shortage of junior infants places. That left up to 30 children with nowhere to go. The school agreed to open a third junior infants class and take in an extra 25 pupils at the Department's request. Now, after doing the right thing, the school is being told it will not be given the additional teacher needed to staff that class. That leaves two unacceptable choices. Either 25 children are left without a school place this September, or two senior infants classes are merged into one class of 34 children. Does the Minister of State agree that schools should not be punished for helping to solve an enrolment crisis? Will he immediately sanction the additional teaching posts required for St. Corban's before the new school year. I would appreciate if the Minister of State addressed that here. Councillor Bill Clear has raised it as a huge issue. He has been to the school and met the parents. This is a crisis that has popped up in a new school in Bandon, too. It seems to be a crisis that is popping up here and there. Schools that are doing their best are still being punished. Sometimes, there needs to be a bit of movement because, for example, there could be a teacher short. I was chairperson of a board of management and know the difficulties that schools face just because they are one or two children short. That can be made up as the year goes on but it is a crisis that Councillor Clear finds unacceptable. Schools stepped up to the mark when the Minister asked them to and now they are being punished for doing so. While I am on the floor, I congratulate Councillors Bill Clear and Ger Dunne from our own Independent Ireland team on becoming mayor and deputy mayor of Naas, respectively.

Sentiment score: -0.00