Nearly one million pupils, 561,357 Primary and 393,433 Kindergarten, return to school on Monday after the summer break with Secondary and other schools starting on September 17th.
This year, due to the cuts, there will be no laptops available for pupils in Primary 5th but grants of up to €6,000 are being maintained for around 7,000 pupils and there are around 3,000 grants for second-attempt pupils.
Almost 900,000 pupils aged from 6 years to 16 years will still benefit from free text books. It is anticipated, however, that the new school year will begin as chaotically as it normally does, maybe even a bit more so with the cuts, with incomplete staff templates of teaching staff, administrators and service personnel, lack of equipment and problems with internet connections.
Hardly surprising really when they have only had three months to prepare.