Parents claim cost of return to school is crippling them
The community group that runs a secondhand book scheme in Mullingar say that there has been a "huge increase" in demand for their services this summer as families struggle with mounting back to school costs.
The Congress Information and Development Centre in Mullingar is among those trying to ease the costs of getting children back to school by providing a secondhand school book scheme.
The scheme has been running for years and allows parents to purchase used school books at half the price of buying them brand new.
People can also donate or sell their children's previous school books here too.
Francis Monahan, Mullingar Congress Centre co-ordinator, said: “We have noticed a huge increase in demand for our service this year.
“As soon as we opened, we had customers, which was unheard of in previous years.
“Covid has had a part to play in this demand but parents are really struggling with the costs of going back to school this year because of the rising cost of living, it's nearly impossible.
“We take school books off parents and we’ll sell them. What happens then is at the end of September, we’ll give them the money from the sold books and we’ll give them back any that weren’t sold.
“We can only take current school books that are on the curriculum and we used to get lots of people donating them but so far this year, no one has donated those kinds of books.They are only selling them.”
Francis has been running this scheme for many years and speaks to almost everyone who comes into the centre to avail of the service.
She said that parents are always talking about the cost of sending their children back to school and how it is a constant financial worry for them.
Parents have mentioned that schools need to be more mindful of families that cannot afford to buy new books every year.
Pressure
A concerned mother from Mullingar was in the centre the day the Westmeath Examiner visited.
She told the paper: “I’m a mother of three children going to a local secondary school.
“I’ve twins going into third year and my daughter is going into leaving cert so the three are in exam years this year.”
She complains that she is under pressure to purchase new books for her three children and although the twins are in the same year, studying a lot of the same subjects, the school won’t allow them to share books.
“Our school doesn't do a book rental scheme, which is ridiculous,” she continues.
“Every year I have the same problem with buying second editions of the same book I bought for them last year.
“It means you can’t pass books down from older siblings and I have to buy new books every single school year.
“You’re looking at €500 to €600 for books alone and that's not even thinking about the copies, pens, exam papers, uniforms and some people have to pay transport fees.
“Myself and my husband both work and it's still very tough.”
Changing profile
Francis mentioned that the centre has welcomed a greater variety of people wanting to get involved in the second hand book scheme this year compared to previous years.
She said: “When we first started this, most of the people looking for second hand books would have been long term unemployed or single parents.
“Now, we have people pulling up in big fancy cars with boxes of books to sell and they’re looking to buy second hand books too.
“It's not an environmental issue, it's a cost issue.”
Francis and her team are encouraging people to get in touch with their local TDs to express their worries and concerns around the rising cost of getting children back to school.
Francis said: “Every parent is stressing and carrying these financial burdens but unfortunately, there is no one person set up to fix the system and how it works.
“What we suggest is complaining to your local politician and in turn they can battle for change and if enough of us do it, something will eventually change.”
Those donating books to the scheme are asked to ensure that the books are currently in the schools curriculum. Otherwise, they will not be accepted.