You are concerned about the rising price of textbooks. Write a letter to the Editor expressing your concern. Suggest what could be done to ensure the stable price of student textbooks and say why these measures are urgent. Sign your letter ‘Chris Wong’.<\/p>\n
10th April 2011
Dear Sir\/Madam,
It is all agreed that the price of student textbooks has been soaring in recent years. The expenditure on textbooks is a huge financial burden on parents. I am writing to express my concern towards this and suggest several ways to stabilize the price of textbooks. I hope that these methods could alleviate the problem.
An average student spends about $2000 on new textbooks every year. It is a heavy financial burden for average families, let alone grass-root ones. Although the Education Bureau provides subsidies to less well-off students, the student grant cannot keep up with the inflation of textbooks. <\/p>\n
Some critics said the students could buy secondhand books or go to cheaper bookstores. However, a few publishers monopolize the textbook market. It is easy for them to control the price and the government cannot interfere. To make matters worse, the publishers always update editions from year to year so it is impossible for students to buy secondhand books.<\/p>\n
I would like to suggest several ways to tackle the problems.<\/p>\n
First, I suggest the government should lengthen the edition period from two years to five years for subjects that do not need much alteration, for example, History, Mathematics, Chinese and English. This can prevent publishers from forcing students to buy expensive brand-new books. Parents can thus save much money. <\/p>\n
The government should also enforce debundling as soon as possible. The cost of research and development for teacher’s textbooks and other teaching materials cannot be transferred to students. The publishers should separate the sale of teaching materials from that of learning materials so student textbooks remain at a reasonable price.<\/p>\n
A third measure is the government should impose regulations to ban publishers from dishing out teaching materials that the schools do not use. It should also regulate publishers sponsoring schools’ pamphlets or leaflets in exchange for schools buying their textbooks. These can stop the cost being transferred to the consumers. The students and parents could enjoy cheaper textbooks.<\/p>\n
To conclude, it is essential for the government to suppress the increasing price of textbooks. If the problem cannot be solved, this would cause more discontent in society.<\/p>\n
Yours faithfully,
Chris Wong
C<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
You are concerned about the rising price of textbooks. Write a letter to the Editor expressing your concern. Suggest what could be done to ensure the stable price of student textbooks and say why these measures are urgent. Sign your letter ‘Chris Wong’.<\/p>