A PARENT DESCRIBED the start of the school year to me recently. Her daughter was beginning first year, which should have been an exciting milestone for the whole family. Instead, they found themselves trying to work out how they were going to pay roughly €700 for the iPad package she needed for school.

On top of the cost, there was the job of setting it up, navigating unfamiliar software and trying to understand a system they had never used before. It is an experience that will be familiar to parents around Ireland and one I hear frequently in Cork.

Whether it is an iPad, tablet or laptop, the issue is much the same. At a time when government is rightly highlighting free schoolbooks, many families are still being asked to find hundreds of euro for a device their child is expected to use every day.

The Free Schoolbooks Scheme is a good policy. Labour supported its introduction, and it has made a real difference. But nobody looking at the bills arriving in family homes at the start of the school year could seriously argue that education is now free. Parents are still paying for uniforms, transport, activities and other school costs. For a growing number of families, a digital device has been added to that list.

Technology has an important place in education and digital skills matter. Schools and teachers need to be able to use technology where it improves teaching and learning. The problem is not the use of technology itself; it is the way the cost of providing it has been allowed to fall on individual families without a clear national approach.

Research published in July by the ESRI and University of Limerick examined the policies, websites and purchasing arrangements of more than 720 post-primary schools. It found that more than three in 10 had arrangements mandating the purchase of digital devices.

The sums involved can be significant. The researchers found packages approaching........

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