Price of school books

Bessacadia

SHOCKING.
With three to buy for, I need a bank loan!I have just bought 5 of 9 books for a 9 year old, and have spent €50 already....

Webmonkey

50 is cheap, have you 2nd level students, thats where the expense rises

Nevyn

The primary school my two go to have a group buy dicount scheme.
They also wanted all the book money paid in full by the end of june,
to ensure that all the books will be there for the first day of term.

So we had to hand over 100 euro for the one going into 2nd class
and 70 euro for the one going into senior infants, this does cover all
their arts and crafts and every crayon , paint glue and bit of paper they will use.

170 paid for next year already. But at least the school has a school savings
scheme and most of the parents put some one in that suring the school term
and then with draw it to cover the cost of the books ect.

Chong

My mother bought my brothers schoolbooks the other day they cost 85 euro and he is in second level. The crux of the situation was that those books were not even for the important subjects Maths, Irish, English , apparently those arent decided till September, so probably another 85euro.

mike65

Ah the annual rip-off continues apace, every year tweak the curiculum so new books' are required when in fact an addendum should be issued.

What would Gill and MacMillan do without this scam?

Mike.

Mimikyu

This post has been deleted.

Bessacadia

Webmonkey wrote:

50 is cheap, have you 2nd level students, thats where the expense rises

Actually I meant to say OVER €50, and yes I have two more to buy for - 3rd and 5th year.

causal

mike65 wrote:

Ah the annual rip-off continues apace, every year tweak the curiculum so new books' are required when in fact an addendum should be issued.

And it wasn't always like that - does anyone remember sharing siblings secondary level books - Holland&Madden or Text&Tests in Maths; Soundings for English. These particular books lasted us 6 kids over a period of about 1975-1990.

causal

dermo88

Not being a parent, but a former pupil, this one definitely caught my eye.

The text books changed very rarely year on year between the 1970's and 1990's. You'd probably have a revision of the text books every 3 to 5 years, but rarely more than that.

This meant that second hand book schemes, renting books, and all sorts of money saving measures were much more common when I was younger than now.

Free education, there is not much free about it from where I am standing.

Talliesin

I find it particularly shocking, since I grew up in a country with free education and therefore am not used to the whole thing.

Dummy

Saw an item in one of the papers the other day about this very topic. The key message was that there are grants available to parents for school books. I think it said that the max is 200 euro.

The article said that a fixed grant was issued by the Department of Ed to schools and was then allocated by the school. But there was a cut-off date for applications.

Contact the school and enquire as soon as you can. Do it sooner rather than later as I cannot remember the cut-off date.

lomb

i agree its a scam, changin the syllabus and books regularly. what i find funny in some ways is that ive met people who dont have a lot, and they think nothing of spending 80 euro in a restaurant with wine, and then complain about the price of thinks like education, which are far more important. need to put things in perspective tbh.

Sleipnir

I remember not using half the books my parents had to buy for me.
Many of them stayed home all year except the first few days.

SparkyLarks

I remember when I was going to school having to queue up for second hand books.
There used to be a massive trade in it.Queues roung the block an hour before the place opened
It doesn't seam to be there anymore. I know the syllabI are changing regularly but they only change 1 or two each year so ther soudl still be loads of second hand books around.

Second hand soundings are great too , with all the notes taken down already

Nevyn

It doesnt.

But that does not stop them releasing new editions of the books with differnt
questions at the end of each chapter and rearranging the order of the chapters.
So the teach says home work first 3 questions at the end of chapter 5 and unless the class all have the same edition things get confused. Sly bástárds.

Hobbes

School Uniforms are a scam too. I recall from first year having to pay x3 the price of a normal tie because the school tie was only sold by one shop.

Shabadu

Thaed wrote:

It doesnt.

But that does not stop them releasing new editions of the books with differnt
questions at the end of each chapter and rearranging the order of the chapters.
So the teach says home work first 3 questions at the end of chapter 5 and unless the class all have the same edition things get confused. Sly bástárds.

People will do anything to make a quick buck at others expense.

I used to be mortified going to school with second hand books covered in brown paper when what seemed like everyone else had brand-new ones with that shiny clear plastic covering them.

On reflection, they were damn right.

causal

SparkyLarks wrote:

Second hand soundings are great too , with all the notes taken down already

Absolutely - mine had the notes of my 5 elder siblings on it
And would you believe some scrote stole it a couple of weeks before my LC exam :mad: :mad:
I wasn't so mad at not having the book for the exam (I already knew my poetry ) - but I was gutted because at that stage it was an intragenerational heirloom.

causal

up for anything

Three in primary school costing me E400 in books, copies, art materials etc and that's before we get the first bulletin of the School year which will contain the fees for extras (which are compulsory) eg Spanish, Gym, Dance, Swimming, Basketball, etc. The rip-off in primary school books are the work books which are nice for the kiddies to use but can be only used once meaning you have to replace them every year.

Kildrought

A friend mentioned that her daughter's books would be in the region of €200; most of these books will do her for her first 3 years in Secondary school.

She then told me that her mobile phone bill (personal use only) was in the region of €130 per month.

I know which I consider to be better value......

causal

Kildrought wrote:

A friend mentioned that her daughter's books would be in the region of €200; most of these books will do her for her first 3 years in Secondary school.

She then told me that her mobile phone bill (personal use only) was in the region of €130 per month.

I know which I consider to be better value......

Your friend either a) can afford the phone bill, or b) can't afford it - and therefore imho exercises poor judgement.

There are countless examples of how money can be spent giving worse value (e.g. make-up, pints, etc.) than school books. But the point of this thread is about the unnecessary extra cost incurred with school books which are too frequently tweaked - directly resulting in an unnecessary extra cost which parents have no choice but to pay.

causal

Kildrought

I don't actually consider €200/€250 for schools books which will cover a 3 year period (JC) to be poor value for money. I think €130 on a mobile is poor value.

My total outlay for my eldest's entry to 2nd level came to about €1,200. Painful at the time; but it was a one-off cost (for the JC in any event).

If my second was to start school before the first had finished the JC cycle; I would have had to buy another set of books anyway.

causal

Kildrought wrote:

I don't actually consider €200/€250 for schools books which will cover a 3 year period (JC) to be poor value for money. I think €130 on a mobile is poor value.

tbh I agree with you on both counts, hopefully the books do in fact cover the 3 years.
The complaint we're making is where books are slightly tweaked / revised thereby requiring a new version to be bought.

causal