No relief on burden of textbook expenditures this year - CHOICE #371

Expenditures on school textbooks this year have risen by 5.4% and 3% respectively for the primary and secondary sectors.

The increases were recorded in the annual Consumer Council survey on textbook expenditures of 54 primary schools and 47 secondary schools.

The average textbook expenditures amounted to $1,942 and $1,752 respectively.

In July, an annual survey of the Council revealed that school textbooks have continued their rising price spiral this year - by an average of 6.8% and 5% respectively for the primary and secondary sectors.

Highlights in the latest survey include:

• Textbook expenditures do not necessarily bear direct correlation to the school grades.
• The average textbook expenditures for Form 1, 3 and 4 exceeded $2,000. But the average expenditure for Form 7 dropped because some schools used fewer textbooks and others virtually did not require Form 7 students to purchase textbooks.
• Relatively significant increases were recorded for Form 6 arts and commercial classes. Since most of the matriculating students purchase textbooks at the start of their matriculation studies, the price rise on these subjects was reflected in the average textbook expenditures for these students.
• In the primary sector, textbook expenditures varied greatly in Primary 1 to 3 because of the large difference in the numbers of books used by various schools.
• The same situation of vast variations was also found in Form 7 in the secondary sector.

In the survey, the Consumer Council has noted that some schools have taken measures to alleviate parents' burden on purchasing textbooks for their children through means as: (a) use fewer textbooks, (b) select less expensive textbooks, (c) produce their own teaching materials, (d) change "required" textbooks to "reference" or "optional", and (e) circulate readers among classes instead of requiring students to buy their own copies.