It seems school textbook prices are overwhelmingly gravity-proofed, and move in unison in one direction - upwards in the past 3 years.
This was the case as manifested in the Consumer Council annual survey on textbook prices for this year.
568 out of the 586 commonly used textbooks surveyed - 225 primary and 361 secondary by 25 publishers - had their prices increased, from 0.5% to 5.6%, according to the survey.
The only exceptions were 18 textbooks with prices stay put and remain unchanged. There was, however, not a single price decrease in the surveyed books as usually found in fluctuating price movements in previous surveys.
Continuing a moderate rising trend of 3 years in a close connection with the inflation, this year's average increase in textbook prices is 3.7%, compared with 3.2% in 2012 and 3.6% in 2013.
The same average price increase of 3.7% was recorded for both primary and secondary school textbooks. The former was up 0.5% while the latter down 0.1% from the previous year.
By subject, senior secondary Chemistry, senior secondary Combined Science and junior secondary Geography were mostly found among the top 10% textbooks at the high end of price increase.
If there is any consolation at all for parents in the face of a price hike of many of the daily necessities and foodstuffs, the price increase in textbooks is lower than the rate of increase of 4.4% in the composite Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the 12 months ended May 2014 over the corresponding period last year.
For the price increase, textbook publishers have laid blame on rising costs, including rental, staff, logistics and printing, as well as the continual substantial decline in the student population. The paper price rose, on average, 1.6% and 1.0% for woodfree paper and art paper respectively.
Debundled textbooks (526 or 89.8% of all surveyed textbooks) increased their price to the extent of an average of 3.7% - same as the average increase of the books yet-to-be debundled.
In the primary sector, 196 (87.1%) of debundled textbooks surveyed recorded an average price increase of 3.7% compared with an average 3.9% increase for the 29 (12.9%) of the books yet-to-be debundled.
Similarly, in the secondary sector, 330 (91.4%) of debundled textbooks surveyed recorded an average price increase of 3.7% compared with an average 3.6% increase for the 31 (8.6%) of the books yet-to-be debundled.
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