Hefty rises in textbook prices: will parents financial burden be alleviated?

Discussion of increasing prices of textbooks has been a controversial topic in local

education system for decades. The Government, teachers, Consumer Council as well
as publishers have put forth various proposals. In spite of the efforts of different
parties, none of these proposals were implemented. For example, the latest
unsuccessful proposal published by the Consumer Council in September 2001
suggested the provision of textbooks could change to centralized provision by the
Government (Consumer Council, 2001). The proposal was not accepted by majority
of schools and even the Government itself. The discussion continues in last year, the
Chief Executive Donald Tsang proclaimed in his Policy Address that a working group
would be established to review the prices of textbooks (Tsang, 2009).
The reason for the new proposal is so unambiguous that the expenditures of textbooks
are solely borne by parents these days and the financial tsunami jeopardized many
families economic states, the hefty rises in textbook prices certainly increased the
pressure on families financial budgets at this hard time.
The aim of the essay is to investigate how the new policy, which proposed by Donald
Tsang, eases parents financial burden. Parents expenditures can be reduced by two
ways. The first way is to reduce the prices of textbooks through market competition
and cost management. The second way is that the expenditure can be apportioned by
schools and the Government, not merely be borne by parents, so parents financial
burden can be alleviated. The essay, therefore, will be divided into two parts. The first
part will include the ways which can reduce the book prices through introducing of
market participators from different sectors other than business sector and cutting
down unnecessary production cost of textbooks. The second part will discuss how the
expenditure can be apportioned by schools and the Government.

This part of essay will focus on the ways of reducing textbook prices. Before we look
at the ways to reduce the textbook prices, it is essential to understand why the prices
of textbooks keep increasing year by year. The increasing high textbook prices reveal
that textbook publishing is a highly profitable business. People may wonder why
these publishers can still increase the textbook prices year by year and make huge
profit without being challenged by other competitors in the market. This phenomenon
can be explained by the domination of publishers in textbook publishing market.
One of the causes of the domination of publishers in the market is that teachers have
developed a dependence on textbooks. Despite some teachers prepare for their own
teaching materials, textbooks are still the keystone learning materials in lessons.
However, numerous educational reforms increase teachers workload, lessening their
time for producing their own materials. Therefore, the publishers take up the role of
material contributors.
As a result of the dependence of teachers, publishers start to dominate the market and
thus lead to the price problem. Publishers were blamed for the high prices of
textbooks. Alternative content providers, consequently, have been introduced to
participate in the textbook publishing market, in a hope to create competition in the
market and eventually lower the prices of textbooks.
Across the globe, textbooks are provided by various parties from different sectors (Au
Yeung, 2009, p.8). Take Australia and Singapore as examples, in addition to private
and commercial vendors, other parties from different sectors like the governments,
teachers, tertiary institutions or community agencies could participate in textbook
publishing. These foreign examples explain that the domination of commercial
publishers was caused by the lack of participations of Hong Kong Government and
community agencies. Limited local textbook providers never reduce the prices.
Rather, ample providers flourish the content of textbook as well as lower the price
through price competition. I believe that the active participation of non-profit making
organizations in textbook publishing would significantly lower the prices.
After suggesting the active participation of textbook publishing, the cost of printed
textbooks could also be reduced by proper cost management. For example, using
lighter paper for printing textbooks and reducing the margins of each page (Textbook
Committee, p.8). Another ways recommended by the Working Group on Textbooks

and e-Learning Resources Development (2009, p.15) is the three-year rule of no

revision could be changed to five-year rule of no revision, only justify textbooks
would be allowed to change. The cost of minor change of syllabus could be paid by
the Education Bureau. This would minimize the unnecessary cost for publishers to
amend their textbooks frequently and so that reduce the book prices eventually. It is
possible that the book prices will be reduced significantly together with introduction
of new competitors and proper cost management.

Besides the reduction of the textbook prices, this second part of the essay will discuss
how the expenditure of parents buying textbooks could be apportioned by schools and
the Government.
One of the reasons why the finance burden of parents is so heavy is that schools these
days will receive teachers copies and teaching materials free of charge from
publishers. The cost of developing these textbooks and teaching materials are imputed
to parents. Parents, in fact, pay more than we need to. It is unfair to parents as schools
should be responsible for the cost of teaching materials and teachers copies.
To deal with this unfairness, the working group (2009,p.18) suggested that textbooks
and teaching and learning resources will be debundled for pricing so as to allow the
market to operate on a user-pays basis. Those teaching and learning resources will no
longer solely be paid by parents but the schools themselves. The working group
(2009, p.11) promised to provide sufficient funding to schools through Operating
Expenses Block Grant, a lump sum of money subsidized to aided schools which
covers virtually all the recurrent grants, (Teachers may need to pay for the teaching
materials, 2009, p. A10) for purchasing these teaching resources.

Apart from being apportioned by schools, parents financial burden can also be
apportioned by the Government. The existing financial assistance scheme, School
Textbook Assistance Scheme from Student Financial Assistance Agency is still
available to those disadvantaged families with financial difficulties on buying
textbooks. Consumer Council (2001) pointed out that the breadth of coverage of the
scheme is also significant. At present, almost 40% of the student population is
recipients of financial assistance to purchase textbooks, either a full grant, or half the
amount.
On the basis of the discussion, it can conclude last years new policy does alleviate
parents financial burden. I have examined the policy from various perspectives, from
reduction of textbook prices to the expenditure apportioned by schools and the
Government. For the first part of the essay, I believe that the prices of textbooks can
be reduced by introduction of market competitors, especially those participators from
non-profit making organizations such as community agencies and non-government
organizations. Besides this introduction, useful and practical guidelines were given by

the Education Bureau to publishers which can help publishers to cut down
unnecessary cost of textbooks. For the second part of the essay, the expenditure of
textbooks can be apportioned by schools and the Government by separating of
students copies from teachers copies. In addition to this new measure, the existing
School Textbook Assistance Scheme can also alleviate parents financial burden. It
should be noted that the discussion above has concentrated only on parents views.
Because of the space limit, I have not been able to discuss students as well as
teachers point of views. I suggest that before implementation of any of the measures
mentioned, opinions from both students and teachers must be taken into account. If
not, the lower prices of textbooks may compromise the quality of textbooks and
eventually impede the learning and teaching in classes.