School textbooks have continued their rising price spiral this year.
Compared with last year, prices of textbooks for the primary (P1 to P6) and secondary (F1 to F7) sectors went up by an average of 6.8% and 5% respectively.
This was unveiled in the annual Consumer Council price survey on textbooks, covering a total of 694 commonly used book titles - 266 for primary, 346 for secondary F1 to F5, and 82 for F6 and 7 - by 38 publishers.
By subject, the biggest price increases in textbooks were found in: Music (23.3%) for the primary, and Chinese History (7.2%) for the secondary.
The analysis showed that if only the 4 core subjects - Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics and General Studies - are considered, the average price increase for primary textbooks will ease from 6.8% to 5.4%.
This year's price spiral in school textbooks took place against a background of structural changes of the textbook market, and an average increase in paper costs of 6%.
The publishers concerned have attributed the following as reasons for price increases:
- In addition to increase costs in paper and staff, oil price increase raised logistic costs, and also raised were rents.
- Requests of more supplementary teaching and learning resources from the market, especially for multi-media resources such as complementary websites and CDs.
- Prices of books imported from the UK were up due to appreciation of the value of the British Currency.
- Number of students decreased the number of textbooks needed, thereby raising printing costs.
- Buying and selling of second-hand textbooks and photocopying textbooks reduced sales of secondary school textbooks.
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