Minister for Education Norma Foley has announced details of the Government plan to provide free schoolbooks for all Junior Cycle students from this coming September.
The scheme was announced last year as part of the budget.
Minister Foley said that schoolbooks and core classroom resources such as journals, copybooks, dictionaries and calculators will all be provided for all students in Junior Cycle years in schools that are part of the Free Education Scheme.
She said that there will be no need for parents or guardians to buy or rent these items.
Schoolbooks will be the property of the school and must be returned at the end of the school year or the Junior Cycle.
The minister said a special administrative support grant would be provided to schools this year to help them with the rollout of the scheme.
The provision of free schoolbooks at Junior Cycle is expected to cost €68 million.
The scheme does not apply to fee-charging schools.
