I am reminded at this time every year just how much families are ripped off by the education system in this country because August is the month that we all shell out vast amounts of money on uniforms and books for those returning to school.

Our curriculum structure is a joke. Gone are the days of brothers and sisters sharing or handing down school books, gone are the days when the books that you bought in first year would last until junior cert - likewise the leaving cert.

I have just spent €590 on new books for my daughters first year in secondary school and on a handful of books for my son in second year, none of which I might add are tax deductible.

Add to this nearly €600 for school uniforms and thousands on school fees and its not a lot out change out of €8000  for the school year.

While I choose and can afford to send my kids to private schools it does not excuse the exorbitant cost of books in this land.

It would appear to me as if there is some kind of cosy cartel existing between the Dept of Education, schools, publishers and book shops. Why should one schools book list vary from another? Why indeed should publishers bring out revised editions of many books every year? Was it that there was something gravely wrong with the last edition?

Let us not forget that for many parents paying for grinds has become the norm now, an essential cost in helping their sons and daughters either to catch up, stay abreast or get ahead in a particular subject, invariably Maths.

I can only guess at what the annual cost of putting a child through college is these days, particularly if they are living away from home.

Our education system is as poisoned as our health care system where equal amounts of families are trapped in the same no mans land, forced to lash out vast amounts of money to over charging doctors and chemists for things that the state should be providing for free, to the tax payer.

While those who pay the least, or none at all, receive the most in aid. While I have no issue with those deserving help getting it I believe there are many abusing the benefits while thousands of hard working families are pinned to their collar trying to educate their children and help them get better when sick, with absolutely no help from the state.

Same old Rose

Did you see those Guys and Gals sweating in the dome at the Rose of Tralee?

For the ten seconds I watched it on TV I was reminded of my own visit to the enormous tent the week before. It was like a sauna. 1000 people all gathered for the RSVP dinner, launching the 49th festival, and while the grub was great the heat was ferocious.

Tuesday night watching the final on TV I thought some of the escorts would be carried out from heat exhaustion. How come women don’t sweat like rivers from their foreheads all down their faces, what is their secret?