Parents Lament High Cost Of Textbooks
As most schools resume on Monday, September 9, 2019, for a new academic session, parents have called on the Federal and state governments to through its various ministries of education regulate sales and distributions of textbooks in all schools.
Also, every trick associated with the routine change of textbooks from certain publisher or author to another, and updating to a newer version should be properly reviewed and harmonised.
Recall that time was, when older siblings or relatives pass down their textbooks to younger ones, without their parents buying new text every new academic session. And the practice was acceptable in schools.
But all that has changed in the contemporary school system, as most schools insist on newer edition of a particular book, and also have a preferred author.
They now identify the sale of textbooks as a great business venture, and most often, insist that parents must buy all books from the school’s bookshop.
Some of the parents said it is really disheartening to have heaps of old textbooks at home without schools accepting them on the ground that they have newer version or different authors.
Mrs. Joyce Ekeh was among those that frowned at the narrative calling on school owners to be considerate in their actions, as there are lots of economic demands confronting parents.
“The textbooks I used from my primary to secondary school days were marked with different coloured inks, wrapped with old newspaper and some with brown sheets with my elder brother’s name boldly written on it. Almost all my textbooks except workbooks were passed to me by my elder brother and it was acceptable in my school. But that is no longer the case in the present-day schools. The government and ministries of education must find a way of bringing harmony in the use of textbooks in the system.
“I bought New General Mathematics Book 2 by J.B Chanon and others N1, 600; Goodbye to Failure in English (new edition), N1, 500; Civic education by Oluwasola Oyewole, N900; and catering craft by Aminu Barki, N1200. The list is a long one, with specifics on the edition and the author, but these are the few I can afford for now. This is asides from the stationery and other school items.
She continued: “Spending this huge sum to buy only four textbooks is not really the challenge. But the fact that my younger children will not be able to use the textbooks in the future. It is either the author has changed or the school has switched to a new publisher, or there is the latest edition with six pages of workbook inserted in the newer edition. If your child doesn’t have the latest version of the book, he or she will not participate in that exercise. This has been the trend over the years.”