In the annual textbook expenditure survey, based on the data from 53 primary and 45 secondary schools, the Consumer Council has found the average textbook expenditures to be $2,153 and $1,947 respectively.
This year's expenditures have shown an increase of 5.9% for the primary sector and 6% for the secondary sector when compared with last year's expenditures of the same sampled schools.
Generally, in the primary sector the increased expenditure was more prominent (close to 6.6%) in the senior primary classes, while in the secondary sector, the average textbook expenditure for Form One to Form Four was more than $2,200.
Further, the Consumer Council has expressed concern over the limited choice for parents in shopping for primary school textbooks.
Under arrangement of many primary schools, designated bookstores are invited to set up onsite sale at the school during a certain time and day. Parents are duly notified usually through a footnote on the booklist.
Parents taking up the sale, which is not compulsory, will be offered price discounts and guaranteed exchange should anything go amiss with the textbooks.
Since it apparently offers great convenience, price savings, and exchange guarantee, the arrangement is generally well received by the parents in recent years.
But this practice may also lead to a situation of some concern to the Council.
Firstly, the Council has observed that probably because many parents no longer shop on their own textbooks for primary schools, some bookstores and in particular the major ones may not sell primary textbooks over the counter these days.
Parents have, therefore, only a limited choice of retail outlets to buy primary textbooks from other than the designated one. It is also possible that the non-designated bookstores may not have sufficient, or carry, stocks of the requisite primary textbooks.
Secondly, the Council has also observed that because most parents nowadays tend to buy the whole set of new books due to the convenience and price discounts by designated bookstores, this may have the effect of slowing the growth of the market for used primary textbooks.
Consequently, the choice for parents looking for used primary textbooks in the market is hampered.
As a long term solution to the problem of rising costs of school textbooks, the Consumer Council has reiterated its call for schools to give their utmost consideration to bring relief to this annual burden of hard-pressed parents.
Schools are encouraged to consider purchasing textbooks with their own funds, and passing the books on to their students from year to year.
And only when the books are damaged or new editions published do schools need to replace them.
The Council considers that this is not only environmentally friendly but that it can ensure that the right edition is used; students learn to recycle and be considerate with precious resources; and reduce the risk of student not being able to find all the textbooks before the academic year commences.
Alternatively, more schools are urged to consider in parallel to follow suit in organising sales of used textbooks for students.
Already quite a number of schools have responded to the appeal of the Education Bureau to organise used textbook donation/sale campaigns to help needy students.
The Consumer Council reserves all its right (including copyright) in respect of CHOICE Magazine and Online CHOICE ( https://echoice.consumer.org.hk/ ).