Quinn urges publishers to cut schoolbook costs
In response to public criticisms about new editions and expensive textbooks, the minister called in the publishers in June to raise these concerns. On foot of the meeting, the Irish Educational Publishers’ Association (IEPA) wrote to him in early July outlining a code of practice signed up to by a number of publishers.
Among their plans were limits on new editions being published, commitments to work more closely with schools to offer book rental schemes and to make discounted vouchers available for charities to help families with the cost of school books.
But Mr Quinn has written back seeking further measures, in light of the financial difficulties affecting thousand of families who face bills of several hundred euro on school books alone for some children.
He said the cost of books for a student entering fifth-year can be as much as €500, while those starting second-level may need books costing €300.
“This represents a very considerable expense in these financially difficult times and there is genuine public concern that it could be a barrier to continuing in education for some students,” the minister wrote to the publishers.
He wants them to drop the prices of books for English, Irish, maths and other more common subjects, notwithstanding the rises in many input costs cited by the publishers.
They had told Mr Quinn that most book prices have not risen between 2008 and 2010, but that global paper prices have gone up 25% in the last two years.
In the letter to the IEPA seen by the Irish Examiner, Mr Quinn also urges publishers to reduce costs such as marketing. He suggests, for example, encouraging teachers to access support materials or manuals online rather than using printed versions.
While making clear that he has no desire to interfere in the private competitive market, the minister also asks for bulk discounts to be offered to schools to further encourage them to develop book-rental schemes.
The publishers also told Mr Quinn that less than 5% of their educational titles were updated last year and he welcomed their commitment not to change textbooks for four years, but he also suggests making any updates available on their websites.
His response is expected to be considered by the IEPA next month but Gill & Macmillan managing director, Dermot O’Dwyer, said publishers have already committed to working on rental schemes with schools even though offering them discounts may cause anger in the retail trade.
“We’re prepared to work with more rental schemes, although we will be accused of taking business from local bookshops,” he said.
Mr O’Dwyer said the issue of pricing could not be decided collectively because this would be banned by competition law.
The other main request was not to combine conventional textbooks and workbooks that require students to fill in the answers in the one publication. The use of workbooks has been one of the biggest causes of complaint from parents, as they can not be resold or passed on to siblings.
“If workbook publications are absolutely necessary (and I am not convinced that that is the case in many instances), I believe that their content should be separated from the main textbook and published separately,” Mr Quinn wrote.
