The Consumer Council yesterday called on schools and the Education Bureau to consider helping parents with the rising costs of primary and secondary school textbooks.
One solution, the watchdog said, was for schools to purchase textbooks and pass them along from one group of students to the next.
'This is environmentally friendly, it can also ensure students will get the right edition,' said Ambrose Ho, chairman of the group's publicity and community relations committee. 'Students will learn to value property which would be commonly shared, [they will] learn to recycle and learn to treasure precious resources.'
The council has already put its suggestion to the bureau, which is 'considering various options', Mr Ho said.
A bureau spokesman said it was 'in the process of setting up a working group to look into the rise of textbook prices and use of e-textbooks'.
The council's annual survey on textbook spending found costs have increased over the past year. 'Based on data from 53 primary and 45 secondary schools, the council has found the average textbook expenditure was HK$2,153 for primary and HK$1,947 for secondary,' Mr Ho said.
'This year's expenditures have shown an increase of 5.9 per cent for the primary sector and 6 per cent for the secondary sector compared with last year's expenditures of the same sampled schools.'
Mr Ho said some schools invited bookstores to hold sales on their premises and parents were offered discounts if they bought a complete set of textbooks. But there were drawbacks - other bookstores may decide not to stock the books and parents may not easily find places to buy used textbooks, he added.
There was, however, 'a welcome trend', Mr Ho said. 'More schools now are organising their own ... second-hand sales and encourage second-hand donations.'
The bureau spokesman said schools could decide whether to invite bookstores into their facilities but 'before making a decision, schools should solicit support from parent-teacher associations, and should take into account the pros and cons'.
'Schools should also keep parents and students well informed of details of such an arrangement, and let them know they have every right not to purchase textbooks in schools,' the spokesman said.
'With regard to the suggestion of schools purchasing textbooks, the bureau notices some schools are working this way and hopes more schools would consider following suit.'
Discussion question: Do you think the prices of textbooks are not reasonable? Are the methods suggested in this article helpful in easing parents' financial burden?
One solution, the watchdog said, was for schools to purchase textbooks and pass them along from one group of students to the next.
'This is environmentally friendly, it can also ensure students will get the right edition,' said Ambrose Ho, chairman of the group's publicity and community relations committee. 'Students will learn to value property which would be commonly shared, [they will] learn to recycle and learn to treasure precious resources.'
The council has already put its suggestion to the bureau, which is 'considering various options', Mr Ho said.
A bureau spokesman said it was 'in the process of setting up a working group to look into the rise of textbook prices and use of e-textbooks'.
The council's annual survey on textbook spending found costs have increased over the past year. 'Based on data from 53 primary and 45 secondary schools, the council has found the average textbook expenditure was HK$2,153 for primary and HK$1,947 for secondary,' Mr Ho said.
'This year's expenditures have shown an increase of 5.9 per cent for the primary sector and 6 per cent for the secondary sector compared with last year's expenditures of the same sampled schools.'
Mr Ho said some schools invited bookstores to hold sales on their premises and parents were offered discounts if they bought a complete set of textbooks. But there were drawbacks - other bookstores may decide not to stock the books and parents may not easily find places to buy used textbooks, he added.
There was, however, 'a welcome trend', Mr Ho said. 'More schools now are organising their own ... second-hand sales and encourage second-hand donations.'
The bureau spokesman said schools could decide whether to invite bookstores into their facilities but 'before making a decision, schools should solicit support from parent-teacher associations, and should take into account the pros and cons'.
'Schools should also keep parents and students well informed of details of such an arrangement, and let them know they have every right not to purchase textbooks in schools,' the spokesman said.
'With regard to the suggestion of schools purchasing textbooks, the bureau notices some schools are working this way and hopes more schools would consider following suit.'
Discussion question: Do you think the prices of textbooks are not reasonable? Are the methods suggested in this article helpful in easing parents' financial burden?
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4 comments:
Inflation is becoming a serious problem in Hong Kong. Although inflation means the economic is growing, but does it means people in Hong Kong are having a higher quality of life? Are the students having a better quality of education?
Textbooks is one of the most important material in teaching. As teachers could have a guideline on what they are going to teach and students could hold it for homework and revising. It is a must in school or else nothing could be done during lessons.
Recently, price of textbooks was increasing sharply, what does this incident tells us? There is more knowledge included? There are more amendments in it? None of it! The publishers increase the price of textbooks for no reason! Parents yelled for help as the burden on textbooks are becoming heavier and heavier. Some parents even raised up anti-publishers' activity such as stop buying new textbooks and buy second hand instead.
Most of the people blamed on the publisher for the unreasonable increase of price of textbooks. But they didn’t consider any situation of the publisher. As I had mentioned before, most citizens are suffering from inflation, the publisher also! The operating cost of the publishers, such as rental expenses, wages of the staff, cost of publishing books, are also increasing. They have to increase the price of their product in order to survive.
So, is there any way to settle both sides’ difficulties? I don’t think the method mentioned in the article could help a lot. Using technology could be a better way to solve this problem. EDB could encourage publishers to introduce electronic books instead of textbooks on paper; it could reduce their cost for sure. Also EDB should encourage schools and parents to adopt e-book and computer teaching instead of tradition method. EDB could also set up supervising authority to check weather the publishers would increase the price for any reason or not.
The cost of text book is outrageous and add significantly to the cost of education. My daughter is a college student and the cost of her texts is significant (Hundreds of dollars per semester). The text book publishers have a racket as well, selling books at high prices that others are forced to buy. Then you sell your used text book back to the book store and literally get 2 to 5 dollars for the same book you paid 70 to 120 dollars for. The book store then sell your used book for 60 to 80 dollars. They are making hundreds of dollars off the same book and at least at my daughters college the book store is run by a publisher.
Out of frustration with the unfairness, we set up a site recently to combat the outrageous prices.CC Book Exchange (CCBookExchange.com) is a classified ads website that is free to use (we don't charge a fee or take a cut of the sales it is completely free) to list your used book for sale. If you price it well, you get more money for your used book and some other student get a bargain price, everyone wins and we keep the cost of text books down.
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