Primary and secondary school textbooks rise in prices by an average of 0.3% and 0.6% respectively this year which are about the same as composite CPI over the same period.
18 and 5 subjects of secondary and primary textbooks were respectively seen to be frozen in price, relatively high increases are however found in Applied Mathematics for secondary classes (7.2%) and Civic Education for primary (2.9%).
The Consumer Council's annual survey covered a total of 879 commonly used textbooks (372 of primary and 507 of secondary), of which 107 (12%) adjusted their prices this year with an increase ranging from 1% to 8.8%.
According to publishers which have raised prices for the textbooks they publish, price increase is attributed to factors such as declining student population and rising operation costs. The costs of paper have recorded a substantial increase of about 20% while printing costs remain largely unchanged.
The publishing industry points out that the operational costs have risen drastically that have made their business difficult. Furthermore, publishers are requested to reprint a few hundred copies of some matriculation textbooks to meet the demand for the last academic year for Form Six students which have driven up the unit printing cost by several times.
Education Bureau recommends the textbook publishers to consider printing low cost version textbooks so as to lessen the burden of parents.
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