to secure that no child shall suffer

8/12/2019 To Secure That No Child Shall Suffer

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" To secu re that no chi ld shal l suff er"

County Wexford Sinn Fin Back to School Paper 2014

Introduction

Ireland is at a crossroads. Despite the reassurances of the national media and proausterity parties that we our economy is now safe, the majority of Irish families arestill living in recession mode, struggling to meet the bare necessities. A huge task ofwork remains to find sustainable employment for the hundreds of thousands stilllingering on the welfare lines as well as the many thousands who have beenscattered around the globe.

Sustainable employment will not be created through Jobs Bridge and the many otherstate scams that are exploiting workers in this country. It will not be created by thesubsidised, 'Mickey Mouse' low paid jobs that are propping up as unscrupulouscompanies, many of them based outside of the state, seek to exploit our employmentcrisis. It will not be created without proper investment and that investment shouldbegin in our children's education system.

As a state we need to make choices that are going to affect the next generationdeeply. Sinn Fin believes in a progressive, fair education system, something thatwe are sadly lacking at present in this state. We are following a template laid downby the founders of the Irish Republic. The following words appeared in the 1919Democratic Programme of the Dil ireann.

"It shall be the first duty of the Government of the Republic to make provision for thephysical, mental and spiritual well-being of the children, to secure that no child shallsuffer hunger or cold from lack of food, clothing, or shelter, but that all shall beprovided with the means and facilities requisite for their proper education andtraining as Citizens of a Free and Gaelic Ireland."

2014 Survey

This is the third annual Sinn Fin survey of County Wexford based parents andguardians to ascertain the true expense of sending children to school in 2014. It was

collected between May and July by volunteers outside public buildings, at sportingand cultural events and online. This year we managed to survey 434 families.

The findings o f the s urvey have been summarise d here;

94% of parents surveyed find Back to School time expensive.

82% of parents surveyed said that they could see the merits for their children's futurein a national switch over to digital learning, but 90% of these feared that it would bemuch more expensive and unaffordable.

67% of parents surveyed said that they would like to see schools switch to usinglaptops, e-books and iPads in order to cut down on the expense of school books,


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writing materials and constant updates to the school curriculum if proper statesubsidisation existed as it does in other nations including the USA.

78% of parents surveyed find secondary school to be the most expensive period in achilds education.

88% of parents surveyed said that they would favour the introduction of a book rentalscheme in all schools in an effort to cut education costs.

49% of parents surveyed are in receipt of the back to school allowance.

76% of parents surveyed have been asked to make a voluntary contribution to theirchild's school.

91% of parents surveyed find that the childrens allowance is not adequate to meetthe cost of sending children to school in 2014.

94% of those parents surveyed felt that any cuts to, or the introduction of meanstesting to the childrens allowance would impact seriously upon their families.

31% of parents surveyed find school books to be the biggest expense during theback to school period. 53% cited school uniforms, while 1% said footwear and 17%identified school transport as the biggest expense.

73% of parents surveyed rely upon their credit card or loans taken out from the creditunion, bank, or from the provident and other door to door loan agencies.

Comments from Parents

I can't hand down any of my daughters books to her brother because they write inmost of them and the schools keep changing the booklist. When I was a child that's

how our parents managed.

We should have ipads for every child. It's what they're going to be using in the realworld but I can't afford it. There should be a grant. It would work out cheaper in thelong run surely.

If we buy the cheaper uniforms in the supermarkets they won't last. You end up

buying more and its more expense. There's no way to avoid the hidden costs.

You'd have to be a millionaire to afford it. No one without kids understands the

pressure.

Our school asked for a voluntary contribution. I thought I wouldn't have to pay it. Iknew I couldn't afford it. The teachers sent a letter home with my young lad. He'seleven so it embarrassed the hell out of him. Just not fair.


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Owen had to get money off his nanny because his college grant didn't come throughuntil November. What was he supposed to live on? Labour can't even get that right.

Useless.

Our proposals;

Stop further government budget cuts to our education system.

Make school crests that can be easily affixed to supermarket bought school uniformjumpers available. An average school jumper costs around 60 when its true valueis less than a third of this price.

Establish a book-lending scheme across all primary and secondary schools in thecounty. The implementation of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Education andSocial Protections plan for a five year template to bring about the introduction of anentirely free school book system should be a priority.

Abolish the charge for the leaving certificate, junior cert and the mocks.

Extend eligibility for the Back to School Allowance to include all families in receipt ofFamily Income Supplement in addition to those in receipt of social welfare.

Provide every primary school child in the state with a free lunch meal. It's beenestimated that one in five children have gone to school hungry at some point sincethe recession began.

Abolish the 23% VAT rate on e-books used for education in line with the VATexemption on printed school books.

Wexford County Council should begin consultation with the Department ofEducation, every school in the county and suppliers of electronic tablets and similardevices in order to launch Wexford as the first county to go completely over to digitallearning. If the tax on digital devices used for learning was to be removed in line withschool books and attempts were made by the state to do a deal with providers ofsuch devices, then digital learning would be considerably cheaper over the course ofa childs education.

The government should investigate the possibility of manufacturing our own e-readers/tablets for the national education system. Such a move would greatlyreduce the cost of digital education (by removing the middle man), createemployment and give us a national commodity that could in theory by sold on to theprivate sector and other states.

Oppose third level fees through any guise and reform the grants system to take intoaccount the real costs of going to college.

Ban the use of workbooks, which cannot be handed down or used again by anotherpupil.


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End the system where schools are reliant on voluntary contributions from parents byraising the capitation grants to cover the real cost of running a school. An estimated76% of parents are requested to make voluntary contributions to schools, amountingto 130 on average per child. Capitation grants which pay for the day-to-day costsof running the school were reduced by 2% in 2011 and a further 1.5% in 2012.

These cuts combined with the freezing of the summer improvements scheme ismaking it increasingly difficult for schools to meet their daily running andmaintenance costs.

Abolish the post primary transport scheme which unfairly discriminates againststudents in relation to where they live. The cost of school transport should becapped at 100 per year, with free transport for primary school children.

End the state subsidy for private education and cap the salaries of university andcollege heads at 100,000.

to secure that no child shall suffer

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