ACC's rental scheme is praised by parents

On Monday, the assembly hall at Athlone Community College resembled the scene of a world record attempt for the largest number of school books in one room. The school's massive book rental scheme necessitated work throughout the summer in preparation for the new school year. The bulk of that effort was now complete, and row upon row of bagged and tagged books sat in the assembly hall awaiting parental collection the following day. While some other local schools, such as Moate Community School, St Joseph's Summerhill and St Aloysius College also provide book rental schemes, the sheer scale of the operation at Athlone Community College makes it one of the most extensive of its kind in the country. At the beginning of each year, parents of the 900 Community College pupils pay in the region of €90 per student, and in return all textbooks for the coming year are provided by the school. This adds up to a grand total of 40,000 books which would cost €570,000 to replace. The scheme is appreciated by parents such as Garnafailagh resident John Gibbons, whose son Brendan and daughter Michelle are about to begin fifth and second year respectively. "With this scheme everything is always ready in time for the start of the school year," explained Mr Gibbons. "It means you don't have to go around searching for books and finding that they might be out of stock in the shops. That just doesn't arise. He added: "School books are quite expensive and the cost (of the rental scheme) is much lower than it would be to buy them." A similar point was made by Retreat Park resident Phil McHugh, who is a mother of three students at the school, Michelle, Louise, and Connell. Ms McHugh said she'd heard anecdotally that the cost of buying school books for one student could be anything up to €300, but that she was paying less than that for the three children to rent their books from the Community College this year. For the last 25 years, the task of sorting, arranging and preparing the books has been overseen by Tony Sweeney, the school's Assistant Principal in charge of the book scheme. Mr Sweeney stated that all of the books are returned by students every June and each one then has to be scanned into a computer database. If necessary, frayed book covers must be replaced. A group of current and former pupils works on the scheme during the summer months. "The end result is that every student will start their classes next week with a full set of books," said Community College principal Eileen Donohoe. Ms Donohoe highlighted the importance of the government's book allocation grant to the book rental operation at the school, and she praised the dedication of Mr Sweeney in working on the scheme each summer. The financial strain associated with returning to school has been highlighted in the national media over the last week, with record numbers seeking assistance from the State to help cover the costs.