MANY families in town are struggling to cope with the costs of sending their children back to school according to St Vincent de Paul in Tralee.
With uniforms, schoolbooks and stationery, the costs can be crippling according to the charity group.
“We’re getting families from all walks of life now, the people who came into to St Vincent de Paul before to donate stuff are now coming to ask for help,” said Junior Locke from the chart organisation.
“A lot of people, for the first time, are beginning to feel the burden of the cost of children going back to school. Bernardos did a survey and found out that, on average, it costs €35o to send a child to primary school. Fast forward to when that child enters into secondary school and the cost is €750. Now say if you have two children going to school that could be over €1000,” he said.
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“If you qualify for the back to school allowance, that’s worth €300 to you, but you are still left with €700 to pay, so people are finding it very tough.”
Junior said people are cutting back on other essentials to pay for their children’s education.
“What happens then is people start to cutback on food and electricity bills to pay for back to school, so that creates a spiral where bills pile up. Thankfully there are people who come looking for help, but there are so many who don’t because they feel it will damage their pride,” he said.
Junior outlined one sad case where a family went without electricity.
“We’ve called to people in the town who have been living without electricity. In one case, for two years, one girl was living in a house with her daughter for six months without electricity. As a result their health began to deteriorate because she could only buy junk food for the child and they had no heating in the winter,” he said.
Junior said there is a solution to some of the back to school costs.
“Most secondary schools request a crested jumper which costs up to €50, while a non crested jumper could cost €5. This is putting a needless burden on families. The social justice department of St Vincent de Paul have been appealing to the government for years in their pre-budget submissions that they should do away with it [crested jumpers]. They could even sell the crests separate so they can be stitched. It’s an unnecessary big cost especially with so many increases in people’s monthly bills,” he said.