Pressure mounts as book pprices increase
While pupils and students are enjoying their summer holidays, the back to school costs are already weighing on some parents’ minds.
Parents are feeling the burden as book prices are increasing year-byyear, with some schools in Wexford switching to iPads which adds to these costs.
Jamie Saunders, who works in The Book Centre, Wexford said the average cost of books for a child going into first year of secondary school is €400.
A first year student needs to do all 16 subjects before picking their subjects for second and third year.
Two schools in Wexford, Presentation and Meanscoil Garman, are now using iPads.
Jamie said: ‘ The iPad alone costs €900 which does not include the insurance or the specific case they need to buy for it. One parent from the Presentation said she had spent, so far, €2,000 and that was not including a uniform.’
With the iPad, students can download their textbooks off an e-book service called Wriggle but are still paying full whack for the books.
Jamie said the biggest disadvantage is that students cannot make notes or highlight anything of importance to them on their iPads.
‘ The iPads do not even offer the foreign language books they need so parents are buying books on top of the €900 for the iPad. We have parents coming in and buying all the books as well as students learn better from the them,’ she said.
Parents who have children going into fifth year are looking at spending A Wexford shop which buys and sells new and second hand school books has been left with a mountain of useless books as a result of changes in editions ordered by the Department of Education.
‘ There is a huge demand for good second hand books but our problem this year is that five subjects have been updated from three years ago. I have €7,000 worth of books in a shed out the back that I bought from people that can’t be used because of an edition change..it might be a change of cover or a change of a sentence,’ said Aoife Fitzpatrick, manager of Readers’ Paradise in Wexford.
Aoife was echoing the frustration of parents who buy an expensive book for a son or daughter to discover that it can’t be passed on to a sibling a few years later because of a minor change in the text.
According to Aoife the recently published new editions include French, CSPE and Maths while English books change every year.
People selling Junior Cert school books to Readers Paradise get credit towards the purchase of Transition Year or Leaving Cert books and those selling Leaving Cert books get cash, unless they want credit towards third level college texts.
Aoife estimates that the average cost of a new book list for a First Year student starting secondary school is €300, on top of the school diary, art supplies and photo-copying costs that most schools charge, not to mention the ‘voluntary’ contribution fee. an average of €300 on school books, with additional costs throughout the year for exam papers and school supplies.
Jamie said they see an increase, books that are delivered to them are at least up by €2 each year and schools are now requesting all new editions of some textbooks.
Jamie said: ‘New editions could cost €40, which is ridiculous as that is nearly the price you pay for a college A Leaving Cert book list will cost about €350 new. Buying the same books second hand will cost about €130 to €140. Readers Paradise which has been operating in Wexford for the past 16 years, has experienced a drop in the sale of second hand books to the shop due to people going online and using social media to buy and sell which is not recommended, according to Aoife.
‘People get mixed up and buy the wrong editions. They’re offered 12% off the cost of new books online but often they don’t know if they’re buying the right book or not. If they come in here, we book. The biggest problem for parents is they can’t re-sell the books at the end of the year because they are constantly changing.’
Meanwhile, the cost of sending a child to primary school is only getting worse with teachers requesting certain books for their classes.
Parents are spending €30 to €90, depending on what class their children are in. Jamie said third and fifth class seem to be the worst as lists coming in have at least six books on them as well as certain supplies.
Jamie said: ‘ Today third and fifth class pupils need six or more books. Judging by the parents reaction here it is only getting worse, especially for those who have more than one child going to school.’
The Book Centre have a Lay Away Scheme, which seems to be very popular among parents. They leave the book list in with the staff at the start can give them advice, we’re here picking out the books for them.’
‘I had a woman in the other day with four book lists. She went to have a cup of coffee and she came back and we had them all ready for her. She said it meant so much to her. What we would say is trust us. Look after your local businesses. If it wasn’t for people coming in here selling and buying books, we would be gone,’ said Aoife who is preparing for an increase in back to school trade in the next week. ‘We have people selling us books the minute schools close for the summer. Once August comes, it’s mayhem, we’re flat out.’ of the summer and can pay bit-by-bit off each week.
‘Once everything is paid for they can collect the books then. It is a good way to relieve stress for anyone as there does not seem to be much schemes in Wexford,’ said Jamie.
Some schools in the county are now doing book vouchers for families for as much as €150, the vouchers are means tested based on the households income.
Jamie said: ‘I would advise everyone to come in now with their book lists as we are running out of stock fast. To re-order everything could take a while. Even leave the list here and pay part of it off when you want with our Lay Away Scheme.’
The Book Centre run a School Books Saving Card scheme. You can top it up throughout the year and then when the time comes it will either pay part or all of the books needed for the next term.