The Consumer Council's annual textbook expenditures survey reveals considerable variation in textbook expenditures among schools.
The biggest variation was found in Primary 1, with the lowest textbook expenditure of HK$509 and the highest of HK$3,089, a difference of 506%.
The textbook expenditure was closely related to number of books used by schools. The primary school with the lowest textbook expenditure required their students to purchase textbooks for 4 subjects only: Chinese Language, English Language, Mathematics and General Studies, while the school with the highest expenditure included textbooks on 5 additional subjects - Computer Literacy, Life Education, Music, Putonghua and Religious Studies, and required their students to purchase many exercise books, workbooks, supplementary exercises and story books etc.
The annual textbook expenditure survey conducted by the Consumer Council covered the booklists of 50 primary schools and 39 secondary schools.
In the survey, the average textbook expenditure for the current academic year was HK$2,219 for primary schools and HK$2,186 for secondary schools, representing a 2.2% and 2.5% year-on-year increase respectively.
By and large, the number of textbooks used by primary schools was smaller compared with those of last year. Some schools no longer required students to buy textbooks for certain subjects, such as Computer Literacy, or use fewer supplementary exercises and/or readers.
However, the average textbook expenditure for most of the grades in the primary sector was still on the rise, from 0.7% to 3.4%.
In the secondary sector, Secondary 1 (3.5%), 2 (3.1%) and 5 (3.7%) recorded notable increases in average textbook expenditures. Some schools added more textbooks in certain subjects in Secondary 1 and 2 (such as Liberal Studies, Integrated Humanities, Chinese History, History, and Geography), and others required Secondary 5 students to purchase more examination practices.
The survey also found that some schools started to adopt electronic materials in certain classes in their Secondary 1 and 2. Students in such classes were not required to buy textbooks for the subjects of Chinese Language, English Language and Mathematics, resulting in almost 50% savings compared to last year.
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- 2012.09.17