'MAMMY, I need €16 cos the dance classes are starting in school today ... Daddy, we're all going to a match tomorrow, I need €7 for the bus.'

Eavesdrop on any family household any morning of the school week and in between the cries of 'I can't find my other sock ... Where's my homework journal gone, I left it there last night ... You know I don't like ham sandwiches anymore ... And you have to sign this note...', you'll hear a child routinely asking for money.

It could be for hip-hop dancing, a donation to a fundraiser, a science field trip, the class photo or a new school hoodie. It might be just a few euro. It's sometimes more. The reason varies but the request is constant.

The handing-over-of-money season is about to start again as parents prepare to send their children back to school with new books, uniforms, lunch boxes and envelopes containing cash for for art materials, photocopying, voluntary contributions and parents' council donations.

Generally, parents don't complain beyond a few exaggerated grumbles but now that the Celtic Tiger has run off frightened into the jungle, that may change.

Only in Ireland could a compulsory system which costs parents so much money be called ' free' education.

Free is when you get something for nothing but the cost of schooling is a significant draw on the annual family budget and it's set to get worse as recent cutbacks take effect and more loom on the horizon. Child benefit is one of the parental supports under threat.

The cost of school transport has already gone up, child benefit for over-18s in full-time education has been withdrawn and capitation fees to schools has been reduced – that's the amount paid by the Department of Education for each child in a school.

This means that schools are going to have to look elsewhere for the money and there's only one place they can go: to the parents.

Most parents don't resent spending money on their children, particularly when it's something as vital as education, but this year, many people are struggling to cope with substantially-reduced incomes resulting from recessional wage cuts in the workplace and increased Government health and employment levies.

Most families now have less money to go around than they did this time last year but they are still facing increased schooling costs for their offspring.

Other prices may have gone down – food, clothing, utility bills – as a direct response to the reduction in disposable income but the cost of education, a basic right in any civilised society, is becoming more expensive.

Parents don't blame the schools. It's not their fault that they're being squeezed tighter and tighter by the Department of Education, forced to reduce the number of special needs assistants, double up classrooms, stop book lending schemes and increase the annual voluntary contribution requested of students, in order to keep going.

They are unfairly caught between the proverbial rock and the hard place, paying for the sins of the banks and the developers.

Schools that managed to acquire funding for new buildings, extensions and refurbishments during the good times, at least have a pleasant environment in which to operate.

The ones that didn't deserve even more sympathy. They are coping with reduced budgets and depressing facilities with little hope of rescue.

It makes you wonder about the stupidity of our priorities during the past decade of excess. We genuinely forgot about the basics and it's difficult to know whether to feel sad or angry at that now.

Money was thrown at fancy restaurants, flash cars and foreign holidays. Now our schools are struggling to cope financially. That's truly pathetic.

- Maria PEPPER