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Irish Examiner
01-07-2025
- Business
- Irish Examiner
Parents face hike in 'voluntary' contributions if Government does not increase school funding
Parents are facing a hike in 'voluntary' contributions this year as cash-pressed schools struggle to plug funding shortfalls. The Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) has warned dramatic rising costs 'turbo-charged' by post-pandemic inflation has left many primary schools struggling financially. 'We have never been contacted by as many schools with financial problems as we were last year,' said Seamus Mulconry, CPSMA general secretary. More primary schools would have found themselves in trouble if not for a cost-of-living payment, which worked out at about €36 per student, he added. The Department of Education confirmed last week that from September the primary school capitation grant would increase from €200 to €224 per student. The grant is for the day-to-day running costs of a school, including heating and electricity. Funding at post-primary level is also set to increase from €345 to €386 per student. "Covid created a cost-of-living crisis across the economy but particularly in schools," Mr Mulconry said. We welcome any increase to capitation, but we need another increase in the budget this year, and it needs to be significant just to keep up with rising costs. 'If you were just to account for inflation, you'd need to have €280 [per student] just to bring us back to 2007 levels of purchasing power,' he added. Parents are estimated to pay about €54m to help subsidise free education through voluntary contributions and fundraising at primary level. When asked if there would be increases in the voluntary contributions in response to funding shortfalls, Mr Mulconry said: 'I think there will have to be unless Government steps up to the mark and provides proper funding for schools. 'At the moment, we have lots of schools that are getting twice as much for the free school meals scheme as they are to run a school. 'That money is coming in and going straight out. We need realistic funding for schools. We need to at least match what our colleagues in second level are getting.' Costs for things like buses, insurance, day-to-day resources, school trips, repairs and utilities have increased for schools across the board. In some cases, schools have seen their annual heating bills rise by up to 80%. On top of this, schools also now have new costs to contend with, such as software systems like Aladdin, or alarm and security systems. The Department of Education and the minister for education will always stress that voluntary contributions are 'voluntary', Mr Mulconry added. And they are, but unless there is a steep increase in the capitation or the funding for schools, those voluntary contributions are going to have to go up. 'Schools are going to have no choice. Fundraising of any kind for schools is a horrendously ineffective waste of a principal and a board of management's time. They should be focusing on teaching and learning, not fundraising. 'In budgetary terms, it is loose change but it's vitally important to schools and we need to see a very significant increase in [the capitation grant] if schools are not going to have to go out to parents, looking for much larger sums then they have looked for before.' Meanwhile, Aontas na Mac Léinn in Éirinn (Amlé) has hit out at the Government's "U-turn" on student fees, which will see third-level fees restored to €3,000, describing the decision to as a "cynical and calculated betrayal". A coalition row is brewing after higher education minister James Lawless indicated fees would go back up, after being cut by €1,000 under cost-of-living measures for the past three years. At a Fine Gael private meeting last week, Tánaiste Simon Harris indicated he would be strongly pushing for a cut to third-level fees in the budget.
RTÉ News
12-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
Record number of schools seek emergency Govt assistance
The Catholic Primary School Management Association (CPSMA) has said record numbers of schools have been obliged to seek emergency financial assistance from the Department of Education this year, as they struggle to meet dramatically increased running costs with inadequate funding. As the primary school year draws to a close, the management body has said an urgent increase in State financial support for primary schools is needed so that they can meet basic running costs. The CPSMA carried out a review of the accounts of 90 schools which showed that between 2019 and 2024 school costs increased by between 60% and 70%. It says insurance costs have increased by up to a third, cleaning is up by around 80% and utilities have risen by 49%. Meanwhile, the capitation rate for primary schools - at €200 per pupil per year - is the same as that paid in 2008. School capitation was cut in 2009, and recent annual Government Budgets have focused on restoring it to 2008 levels. The Department of Education has pointed to the once-off cost-of-living payments that have been made to schools this year. At primary level they amounted to an additional €36 per pupil according to the CPSMA. The department also points to the fact that capitation for primary schools will increase to €224 next year. But the body that represents the bulk of the country's primary schools, its Catholic primary schools, is concerned that next year's increase is nowhere near enough. "If it hadn't been for [this year's once-off payments] schools would be underwater now," CPSMA General Secretary Seamus Mulconry said. The CPSMA has said the immediate financial pressure that many schools are facing now needs to be addressed as a matter of urgency. "We have never received as many queries about school finance as we have this year, and we have never made as many representations. It is unprecedented; record numbers of schools are asking us to request the [Department of Education] for financial assistance," Mr Mulconry said. "What is emerging is a massive increase in costs between 2019 and 2024. While these 90 schools are not a representative sample, I think they are pretty indicative of what is going on." 'Schools unable to meet their running costs' Four primary schools in Co Louth spoke about their struggle to make ends meet. They are among a network of 23 schools across the county who say they are facing serious financial problems. "Schools are unable to meet their running costs. The only way we can do it is with the support of the wider school community and contributions from parents", said Principal of Scoil Aonghusa in Drogheda, Edel Ní Bhroin. The principal of this gaelscoil has gathered information across 23 Louth primary schools in her local network. She says all are facing unprecedented financial challenges due to basic costs that have risen. "Schools are under real financial difficulty. Schools that never before ran a deficit are now going into debt and that is very worrying". St Joseph's CBS is next door to Scoil Aonghusa. In this DEIS school, a huge plastic bag filled with empty plastic bottles sits in a corner, waiting to be exchanged for cash via the deposit return scheme. "This is one of the ways we are funding our school at the moment, one of the many ways," Principal Sarah Bradley said. "Our amazing children, and their families, are bringing in plastic bottles to help fund their education, and I think this is a really sad state of affairs." What she finds most frustrating about this financial struggle is that "you can't plan and you are constantly having to say 'no' to educational opportunities that three years ago weren't a consideration; 'Can we afford to hire that bus? Can we afford to go to that football match? Can we do the things that we used to take for granted". These four Louth schools all itemise cleaning costs that have "skyrocketed", insurance costs that have risen by up to a third, lighting, heating, bin and water charges, toilet roll, soap. "The list goes on and on and what annoys me is that there is so little if anything left for learning and teaching, for resources for children with special needs, resources for children in special classes," the principal of Naomh Feighín NS, Bryan Collins, said. He has been a school principal for 29 years. "We are the canaries in the coalmine, a decade ago we were warning about the prospect of teacher shortages, now we are saying that schools are coming to the end of the line [financially], that schools are going to be in serious trouble and we are trying to highlight this as best we can." Eileen Pike is the principal of Tullyallen National School, which is an unusually large rural school catering for more than 400 pupils. "We have probably spent most of our capitation this year on insurance and cleaning," she said. "This is a very big struggle for us. The cost of cleaning has just skyrocketed, even the cost of cleaning supplies. It is just impossible at the moment." These four Louth principals represent very different kinds of schools, smaller and large, rural and urban, one DEIS and one gaelscoil. They and the CPSMA say the problems they are facing are shared by primary schools across the country. They have called for systemic change to how primary schools are funded; they point to the fact that post-primary school capitation is significantly higher. But they also say schools need immediate financial support to bail them out now. What will happen if this support does not come? There is talk of primary schools being forced to close their doors. Seamus Mulconry says schools "will do everything in their power not to" have to close. He said schools will be obliged to turn to parents - that is, the schools that can. "If there isn't real and substantial investment by Government we are going to see parents on the hook for all of these costs and charges," Mr Mulconry said.
RTÉ News
05-06-2025
- Business
- RTÉ News
School management body criticises primary school ICT grants
The largest school management body in the country has criticised what it says is a reduction of more than one third in the state grant given to primary schools this year for ICT. The Catholic Primary School Managers Association (CPSMA) says the funding, which landed in school bank accounts today, amounts to €25.33 per pupil in a mainstream class, compared to €39.73 received per pupil last year. However, the Department of Education and Youth has denied that this represents a cut in funding. €35 million in school ICT funding this year was announced last week. It is part of €200 million committed to digital learning in schools under the National Development Plan, to be spent by 2027. A spokesperson for the Department said the NDP commitment did not guarantee a specific amount in each year. "To date, a total of €100 million of the €200 million committed for in the NDP for the strategy has issued to schools through the ICT grant," they said. "It is anticipated that issuing €35m in 2025, as announced this week, will enable the balance of €65m remaining to issue to schools over the remaining years of the current strategy to 2027," the spokesperson said. However, the CPSMA said that schools were not told that the amount to be paid this year would be considerably less than that paid last year. It says schools had budgeted on the basis that they would receive the same amount of funding this year as last. CPSMA General Secretary Seamus Mulconry said the lower amounts had come as "an incredibly unpleasant surprise" to schools struggling to make ends meet as the school year comes to an end. He said schools had been anticipating this funding and relying on it as "a much needed injection". "If primary schools were not already underfunded this would not be as big a problem for them," he added. The disparity between last year's payment and this year's for pupils in mainstream schools amounts to a reduction of 36%. For pupils in disadvantaged schools the gap is 38.5%.
