Parents reeling over textbook costs

Parents feel the heat of price increase under new curriculum

By Teddy Ng

HONG KONG: Textbook publishers came under fire from parents yesterday over the price of textbooks for the new senior secondary curriculum. There’s a big difference in prices for textbooks to be used for the new curriculum, starting in September. The publishers gave a non-committal response to protests by parents.

Parents with children proceeding to secondary four in September will be unable to use second hand textbooks — all the old ones become obsolete at the end of the current term. Under the new curriculum, students will complete three years of senior education, instead of taking secondary four and five to complete a certificate examination for a two-year matriculation program. The program is based on the British model.

Students will require Chinese, English, Mathematics and Liberal Studies as compulsory subjects, plus two or three electives.

Information released by the bureau shows the price of most textbooks will increase 50to 120 percent under the new system.

A set of the new physics textbooks can cost as much as HK$1,847. Physics textbooks for the current term cost HK$856.5. A set of the new mathematics textbooks published by Longman costs HK$1,484. The same publisher’s textbooks in use in the current term cost HK$682.

The most expensive set of Chinese textbooks for the new system costs HK$875, compared with HK$620 under the current system. Students will need to pay about HK$600 for the new English textbooks, about HK$200 more than the current ones.

Education Bureau principal assistant secretary Cheung Kwok-wah said the prices of textbooks under the two systems are not comparable since the new system requires an additional year of study. However, Cheung admitted that the publishers could reduce textbook prices to alleviate the burden on parents.

“Price and quality is not necessarily co-related,” he said. “We believe that there is room for publishers to lower the price. For example, they can use cheaper paper to print the books.”

Hong Kong Alliance of Parents Association chairman Chan Siu-chu said parents consider the new, higher prices unreasonable.

“We are shocked by the increase, but we can do nothing about it,” she said. “Obviously, the textbook publishers have not considered whether we can afford the expensive books.”

Chan urged the bureau and schools to apply pressure to the publishers to lower prices.

However, a member of the Anglo-Chinese Textbooks Publishers Organisation, Patrick Sinn, who also serves as managing director for Jing Kung Educational Press, said prices already are kept low.

Sinn said publishers require two years to prepare new textbooks. Textbooks for the new curriculum entail more in-depth discussion of subjects, which means they are longer and are more costly to produce.

“We are not using expensive papers. And we have already reduced the manpower cost,” he said.

Hong Kong Subsidized Secondary Schools Council chairman Liu Ah-chuen said schools have asked members to consider affordability for parents before assigning textbooks to courses.

Cost inflation

Textbooks to be used in the new curriculum expect a price increase of up to 120%

Source:
China Daily Hong Kong Edition 09 Apr 2009 (Thursday)

Link:
http://prd1-libwisesearch.wisers.net/ws5/tool.do?wp_dispatch=confirm-view&doc-ids=news:153k^200904098450116(S:59402710)&menu-id=&on-what=selected&from-list&display-style=all&tooldisplay=true

Questions:
1.What are the reasons for a sharp increase in the cost of textbooks?
2.Do you think the response by Mr.Cheung Kwok Wah reasonable?
3.What can the government do to alleviate the burden of parents?