Over 8,500 people have now signed the SVP School Books petition, support continues to grow and we are delighted with the response and the public's determination to make sure this issue doesn't go away.
We met the Minister for Education Ruairi Quinn to present him with the 7,000 signatures who agreed with our ‘Cut the costs of School Books Petition’ on Tuesday 21st June.
The collective voice of so many people really opened the door for the meeting so thank you to everyone who has taken the time to sign the petition and for making the difference which allowed us to be heard.
As promised, we challenged Minister Quinn on why there aren’t more school book rental schemes, why they’re not compulsory and why book publishers are allowed to make minor changes to school books every year forcing parents to buy new copies every time.
The meeting was very positive and was attended by the Minister, several key Education advisors, John Monaghan - National Vice-President of SVP and Audry Deane - SVP Social Justice & Policy Officer. The Minister listened intently to the Society of St. Vincent de Paul proposals for a fairer, more efficient national book rental scheme and agreed that ‘something needed to be done”.
We handed the Minister a bound copy including everyone’s name and county and while we spoke we kept pointing to the book saying here was the evidence that people like you were sending him a clear message demanding reform. We were very well prepared for any objections they may have had and we pressed home our argument very clearly and firmly.
Minister Quinn appeared genuine in his desire to find the right solution – that concrete steps need to be taken to stop this unnecessary burden on parents and that funding book rental schemes and making them more accessible was a very credible opportunity. The next day in fact he called in the book publishers personally to discuss the matter!
The Minister clearly understood the problem of expensive and wasteful school book edition changes for parents. We are confident that he has taken our recommendations on board.
This year we will spend over €4,000,000 supporting students in education, so every cent we receive counts. If we can find ways to save money in this area we can help others in need and spend your donations more effectively.
If you can help; please make a donation.
If you need help please get in touch.
Either way please just continue to spread the word about our petition and how, together, we can fix this problem.
There is a lot more still to done – challenging publishers and continuing to lobby the Government for this simple but important change. We will keep fighting and we will watch the signatures grow and grow until something is done.
Thank you so much to everyone who has shown their support so far.