INTO Oppose Collection of Vouchers in Schools.
The Irish National Teachers Organisation, the largest teachers’ union in Ireland, has encouraged its 34,000 members not to participate in supermarket Voucher collection schemes. General Secretary John Carr said “Schools should be free from proof of purchase incentive schemes. The presence of voucher collection boxes, ‘target charts’, promotional posters and letters of appeal for vouchers is unacceptable advertising in schools.”
See RTE News coverage of Kids in Action launch and INTO criticism.
INTO Press Release:
Statement by John Carr, INTO General Secretary, on Commercial Products in Primary Schools
7 January 2008
Primary teachers opposed to the collection of tokens in schools.
The Irish National Teachers’ Organisation said today that its members oppose the collection of tokens in schools. Such schemes are being used by companies to target young children and their families and let the government off the hook when it comes to school funding.
“State funding for primary schools is woefully inadequate,” said John Carr, General Secretary of the union. “INTO research shows that the day to day running costs of the country’s 3,200 primary schools far exceed funding provided by the Department of Education and Science.
“But,” he said, “the solution to under-funding is for government to keep its pre-election promise to double funding for schools. It is not to have schools collecting tokens to provide additional revenue for commercial companies.”
A survey carried out last year, showed that state funding goes nowhere near meeting the real costs of running schools such as heating, light and electricity, cleaning, insurance, office expenses and classroom equipment. Primary schools are funded on the basis of the number of pupils on roll each year. This year each primary school will get €174 per child to meet all running costs. Therefore a one hundred pupil school is expected to meet day to day running costs on less than €20,000 per year. “This simply cannot be done,” said Mr Carr.
He accused commercial companies of trying to exploit the cash shortage in schools. He also said the Department of Education was quite happy to allow this to happen in order to cover up its own under-funding of schools. He said the INTO had sought a policy from the Department of Education and Science on commercial products in schools. “Nothing was done despite a Dáil commitment from the Minister to examine the issue,” he said. “As a result the union devised and circulated its own policy to schools.”
This followed growing concern among teachers at the increasing presence in schools of commercial products and schemes.
The union’s policy states that it is “essential to ensure that pupils are not exploited for commercial ends in schools”. “Commercially driven schemes which seek to promote brands, increase sales and direct purchasing decisions of children and their families should be discouraged while at the same time truly philanthropic giving on the part of the business community should be encouraged.”
“Schools should be free from proof of purchase incentive schemes,” states the policy. “The presence of voucher collection boxes, ‘target charts’, promotional posters and letters of appeal for vouchers is unacceptable advertising in schools. This should extend to all groups associated with schools such as Parents’ Associations.”
The policy provides a number of examples of how such a policy might work in schools. For example it states that “under these guidelines, schools would not collect any proof of purchase vouchers/tokens. Collection boxes and target charts for a particular brand would not be displayed in school and teachers would not accept vouchers, reminding pupils that where they shop or how much they spend is of no concern to the school.”
The policy does however recognize that many companies donate curricular equipment and support schools in a genuinely philanthropic manner. In such cases the union recommends that such activities be given “appropriate adult recognition through the staff, parent association or board of management” but it states that there should be “no in-school promotion involving pupils”.
Ends.