Row over school fees hike in Kells

Parents at a secondary school in Kells have raised strong objections to demands for an increase in an annual 'registration' fee and a change in school uniforms which necesstiated the purchase of extra items. Two parents of students attending St Ciaran's Community School in Kells say it was never explained to them that the fee being sought shpild be voluntary and insist that they had always understood they had to pay the fees. They also said that several students who went to the school to pay over €20 for the rent of a locker, and for a school journal, were told they would first have to pay up the registration fee. A senior Meath Vocational Committee (VEC) official said that these were difficult times for many parents and that each school should have a system in place to help parents try to meet the costs of education. Paul Sutton, Athboy, and his wife, June, have two children attending the Kells school. Mr Sutton said the "fee" for the two children had been pitched at a total €45 last year but this year it had increased to €120 for the two pupils. He said: "This charge is described in a letter to us as a 'registration fee'. And they never explained the increase." He said he had tried to contact the school authorities and had been told that an official would contact him by phone. However, he said he had pressed the issue and is to have a face-to-face meeting this Wednesday with school authorities over the issue. Mr Sutton said he had contacted the Department of Education and an official there had told him that any such fee being sought by a school should be described as "purely voluntary". Mr Sutton added: "He told me that a compulsory fee could not be enforced in any way." Mr Sutton's cousin, Derek Lynch, who has children at the same school, said there should be no compulsory fees in a State-run school. He said he was refusing to pay any fee. "I'm on disability and my wife is not working. Times are extremely hard. It's not only the fee they are looking for, but in the middle of a recession they decided to change the uniform for some reason. We're after handing out €140 for four pairs of trousers and that's before a school book or anything else was bought," he said. Peter Kierans, CEO of Meath VEC and joint trustee of St Ciaran's, said that this was an extremely difficult time for parents, especially when children went into second-level school. "They have the cost of uniforms and school books on top of that. The schools should all the time have systems in place that help parents meet the costs. Parents may be able to pay over a period of time, and there can be negotiation over bulk buying of uniforms," he said. He added that all boards of management had an oversight of what went on in the school and parents could make their voices heard through parents' representatives on these boards or directly to the boards themselves.