The average expenditure of primary school textbook this year increased 4.1% when compared with that of last year. In one primary school, the spending for a full set of textbooks for a primary six student could be as high as HK$3,033.
In an annual textbook expenditure survey conducted by the Consumer Council, the data provided by 51 primary schools and 43 secondary schools revealed that the average textbook expenditure was HK$2,110 and HK$1,862 for primary and secondary schools respectively. Average expenditure for secondary school textbooks was 3.5% less than last year.
In primary sector, the average textbook expenditure varied from the highest of HK$2,193 for primary six to the lowest of HK$1,962 for primary one. Within each grade, there was also significant difference in textbook expenditure between different schools, in which one could be the twice of the other, except for primary two and primary three. The biggest discrepancy was found in primary four, which had a difference of 132%.
Compared to the primary school booklists for last year, changes were observed in the required purchases. Some schools had reduced use of complementary exercises and worksheets to the textbooks, or English grammar books, listening, reading and writing exercises as well as readers.
The survey also found that some schools had adopted electronic textbooks in Computer Literacy which cost less compared to the printed textbooks.
In the secondary sector, the average textbook expenditure was HK$1,862, a decrease of 3.5% with reference to that of last year. A substantial drop of nearly 40% was found in the average expenditure of Form 6 (Senior Secondary 3) students, and it only costs them on average HK$963 to buy textbooks this year. This substantially reduced the average textbook expenditure for secondary schools.
The big drop is due to the fact that Form 6 is now the last year of secondary education in the new academic structure. In the past, Form 6 was the first year of Matriculation studies which required purchasing a large quantity of textbooks.
There was a slightly increase of 1.6% to 2% in the average textbook expenditure for junior secondary grades. The difference in expenditure for Form 1 textbooks in different schools, however, was as high as 1.5 times, or in monetary terms of HK$2,299.
The average textbook expenditure for Form 5 (or Senior Secondary 2) had increased by 2.7% to HK$2,125 this year. The survey found that many schools had revised the quantity and types of textbooks used for the class. Similar to the primary sector, the secondary schools tended to use fewer textbooks for subjects other than Chinese, English and Mathematics, or including less exercises for certain subjects in the textbook list.
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