Sarah Carey: The State is shovelling cash into schools, but bad budgeting and indiscipline is blowing it all
If the Department of Education paid grants at the start of the term instead of the end, schools could manage cash flow better, reduce stress and avoid bringing the begging bowl out to parents.
For the columnist some subjects, like the seasons, flower earlier each year. It’s only July but back-to-school costs are filling up our basket of opinions already.
There are two sides of the cost panic: parents and schools.
Typical fodder for the parent side was an Irish League of Credit Unions (ILCU) press release highlighting the rising costs of kitting children out for school.
What’s more, when the youngest fella started secondary school last year he was told to bring nothing except a schoolbag and a pencil case. Everything else – books, copies, pens and pencils –were paid for by the State. That saves a fortune and a lot of hassle.
Free books means back-to-school costs have gone down, not up, for parents.
The media has a responsibility to interrogate all such figures closely.
On the other hand, schools themselves are facing a financial nightmare. What’s frustrating is that the State is piling money into the school system, but in a wasteful manner that puts maximum pressure on the management.
Seamus Mulconry is general secretary of the Catholic Schools Management Association. He says: “Primary schools have always been underfunded, but now they are under water.”
Published in The Irish Independent, 26th July 2025