{"id":454,"date":"2012-08-01T11:45:03","date_gmt":"2012-08-01T11:45:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/barnardos-survey-highlights-actual-cost-of-sending-child-to-school\/"},"modified":"2012-08-01T11:45:03","modified_gmt":"2012-08-01T11:45:03","slug":"barnardos-survey-highlights-actual-cost-of-sending-child-to-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/barnardos-survey-highlights-actual-cost-of-sending-child-to-school\/","title":{"rendered":"Barnardos\u2019 Survey highlights actual cost of sending child to school"},"content":{"rendered":"

Barnardos\u2019\u00a0Survey highlights actual cost of sending\u00a0 child to school
1st<\/sup> August 2012<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Sinn F\u00e9in D\u00e1il Education spokeperson Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe has welcomed today\u2019s launch of the Barnardos\u2019 School Costs Survey which highlights the increasing financial burden being placed on parents when sending their children to school. He described the exhorbitant cost of school uniforms as a racket and said that with a little imagination Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and his colleague Joan Burton could introduce measures that would help parents trapped in this situation.<\/p>\n

Deputy Crowe said: \u201cThis is the 7thyear the Barnardos\u2019 School Cost Survey has been published and it highlights how many parents are struggling to meet the cost of sending their child or children to school.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 987 parents who responded to this online survey reported that the average cost of sending a child age 10 to primary school was \u20ac390 and for a 12 year old attending 1st year of Secondary School the cost was somewhere in the region of \u20ac770.<\/p>\n

\u201cSchool uniforms, footwear and text books were the most significant expense incurred by parents who were paying an average of \u20ac100 for some Primary school uniforms and between \u20ac150 – \u20ac170 for a Secondary school uniform.<\/p>\n

\u201cParents were understandably highly critical of being forced to buy uniforms from a elite of selected of producers and retailers who can charge exhoribantlly high prices for items of clothing all because they come with a\u00a0 school crest.<\/p>\n

.I am on record for having publicly called on the Education Minister Ruairi Quinn to pro actively introduce measures to eleminate this school uniform racket.<\/p>\n

Similarly the survey highlights the inability of parents to pass on school books between siblings and the constant reprint of text books was inflating back to school costs to unacceptably high levels.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that Schools have been placed under increased financial strain because of cuts to the Capitation Grant and in many cases this is being passed on to parents who are being forced to pay voluntary contributions of between \u20ac50 – \u20ac70 at primary level and \u20ac120 at post primary.<\/p>\n

\u201cSinn F\u00e9in has launched a campaign that seeks to get Education Minister Ruair\u00ed Quinn to introduce relatively simple measures that would reduce the cost of sending a child to school. We have sourced a company that produces custom made crests which can ironed on to generically coloured jumpers at a fraction of the cost of what is currently available. Already, we have seen retailers reducing the cost of their school jumpers in the face of competition from multiples like LIDL. I also believe the book lending scheme, which has proven to be a success should now be extended\u00a0 right across the State.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we fast approach the new school term, this Barnardos Survey and its conclusions are a timely reminder of the financial cost and unacceptable strain being placed on many parents.<\/p>\n

It also\u00a0 highlights and provides clear evidence that the Back to School Allowance is less than adequate to meet the growing expense of sending a child or children to School.<\/p>\n

“I believe that\u00a0 with a little imagination and effort Education, Minister\u00a0 Ruairi Quinn, his colleague Social Protection Minster Joan Burton and their Department officials could introduce measures that would at least improve the situation for parents trapped in this situation.<\/p>\n

Minister Quinn;s\u00a0 stock reply when challenged on school uniforms is that ” his hands are tied”. His Pontius Pilot approach is fooling no one and more must be done by him and Minister Burton to help families in these\u00a0 difficult economic times.<\/p>\n

“Barnardos should be congratulated for producing this extensive survey. It should be used by Ministers to inform and direct their policies as hundreds of thousands of parents make plans and preparations for their children to attend\u00a0 schools in September.”ENDS
<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

Note to Editors: A copy of the Report can be downloaded at: <\/strong><\/span>www.barnardos.ie<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Barnardos\u2019\u00a0Survey highlights actual cost of sending\u00a0 child to school1st August 2012 \u00a0 Sinn F\u00e9in D\u00e1il Education spokeperson Deputy Se\u00e1n Crowe has welcomed today\u2019s launch of the Barnardos\u2019 School Costs Survey which highlights the increasing financial burden being placed on parents when sending their children to school. He described the exhorbitant cost of school uniforms as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-454","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=454"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/454\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=454"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=454"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/seancrowe.ie\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=454"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}