Hard hit by inflation, parents are going to face further pressure from the price increase of school textbooks in the new school year.
According to the Consumer Council's annual survey on the price of commonly used school textbooks, the average increases on secondary and primary textbooks this year are 3.8% and 4.3% respectively. These increases exceed the 3.3% rise in Composite Consumer Price Index (Composite CPI average for the 12 months ended May 2011 compared with the average for the 12 months ended May 2010).
The annual survey covered a total of 1,093 school textbooks (419 for primary classes and 674 for secondary classes) published by 36 publishers. Among them, the price of 954 (87%) textbooks went up by 1.0% to 9.8% while 139 (13%) recorded a freeze in price.
The price increase of commonly used primary school textbooks classified by subjects was from 3.2% to 4.8%. Only one subject of textbook, Civic Education, remained unchanged in price. The highest price increase was found in Music textbooks (4.8%).
The average price increase of textbooks for Secondary 1 to Secondary 5 was 4.3%, while the increase for Secondary 6 and Secondary 7 was 1.2%. A remarkable price hike of 7.8% was found in the subject of Physical Education.
Textbook publishers have attributed the price increase to the continuous decrease in student number as well as inflation which results in the cost increase in raw materials, staffing and production, also the fact that the price of textbooks have been frozen for two years.
On the cost of paper, since it is a common practice for publishers to stock up printing paper in the first 5 months of the year for the production of textbooks, the Council surveyed the price change of paper for the first 5 months this year as compared with that of the same period of the previous year. It is found that the average price of wood free paper in the first 5 months this year was on par with the price at the same period of 2010, while coated paper recorded a price decrease of 2.2%.
There was a sudden increase in paper price in May this year. The effect of the paper cost on the textbook prices would depend on whether the publishers bought the paper at the beginning of this year when the paper price was relatively low.
On printing cost, 5 out of 9 of the surveyed printers indicated that the printing charge remained the same as last year, while the other 4 said there was a price increase of 5% to 20%.
The issue of de-bundling of textbooks, teaching resources and learning materials has been discussed for quite a while but only a small number of textbooks listed in the Recommended Textbook List published by the Education Bureau now offer separate prices for the textbooks and the related teaching resources. The Council is extremely disappointed at the slow progress made by the textbook publishers.
The Council believes there is room for downward adjustment of textbook prices if the textbooks and their related teaching materials are de-bundled. The Council will actively participate and reflect the views of the public in the task force newly established under the Education Bureau, in reviewing and monitoring of the work on de-bundling textbooks and teaching resources.
The Consumer Council reserves all its right (including copyright) in respect of CHOICE Magazine and Online CHOICE ( https://echoice.consumer.org.hk/ ).