Aontú TD for Mayo, Paul Lawless, has welcomed clarification from the Minister for Education that there is no requirement for leaving cert or junior cert students to have their own laptop.
Speaking today, Deputy Lawless said: “A number of parents in my constituency have contacted me in recent weeks expressing concern that they were being asked to purchase laptops for their children in secondary school. During this cost-of-living crisis many parents are to the pin of their collar and extremely stressed with back-to-school costs looming. The last thing they need is an instruction to buy an €800 laptop for their son or daughter”.
Deputy Lawless continued: “On the back of these concerns I wrote to the Minister for Education asking her to make a statement clarifying the matter. I am glad that Minister Naughton has now written to school principals around the country clarifying that there should be no requirement for students to have their own laptops”.
“In recent years we’ve seen significant reforms to the school curriculum and exam process with more of a focus on continuous assessment and project-based grading. This is where the drive for laptops is stemming from. Many of my constituents are struggling to pay for groceries or to heat their homes. It is extremely unfair to saddle additional costs on them in the form of school laptops and it’s not fair that some students should have an advantage over others just based on their family’s income streams. Over the next number of weeks parents will come under pressure to purchase laptops, however the clarification from the Minister shows that this is optional expenditure rather than mandatory”, concluded Lawless.
