School uniform costs 'a racket'

Dear sir - The Barnardos' School Costs Survey highlights the increasing financial burden being placed on parents when sending their children to school. The exorbitant cost of school uniforms are "a racket" and with a little imagination Education Minister Ruairi Quinn and his colleague Joan Burton could introduce measures that would help parents trapped in this situation. This is the seventh year the Barnardos' School Cost Survey has been published and it highlights how many parents are struggling to meet the cost of sending their child or children to school. The 987 parents who responded to this online survey reported that the average cost of sending a child age 10 to primary school was €390 and for a 12 year-old attending first year of secondary school the cost was somewhere in the region of €770. School uniforms, footwear and text books were the most significant expense incurred by parents who are paying an average of €100 for some primary school uniforms and between €150 - €170 for a secondary school uniform. Parents are understandably highly critical of being forced to buy uniforms from a very limited selection of producers and retailers who can charge exorbitantly high prices for items of clothing all because they come with a school crest. Over the coming weeks Sinn Féin in East Meath will be distributing over 10,000 leaflets in Ashbourne, Dunshaughlin, Dunboyne and Ratoath, as part of our Back to School campaign, encouraging parents to resist government cuts in education. Yours, Darren O'Rourke, Sinn Féin, East Meath.