Madam, – With the imminent return of children to school, parents’ minds are once again focused on the cost of school books.
I find that yet again our household is left with a library of redundant, unsaleable texts that had somehow served our children very well up to June this year, having being bought only last September.
I am at a loss to know why subjects such as languages, history or mathematics, which hardly change radically in their substance from year to year, seem to require revised texts on an annual basis.
To my knowledge, Pythagoras’ theorem has stood up well to heavy use over the past millenniums and is still serviceable. Why then, the seemingly constant need for new texts? The excuse often trotted out is “syllabus changes”, however, even a brief perusal of the Department of Education’s website would suggest that most courses have been relatively unchanged for a number of years, and that any major change to their content would be a significant event, as opposed to an annual inconvenience.
While teaching materials must evolve, we are at least entitled to know why there is a need for constant changes. More particularly, a clear explanation is urgently needed regarding the process by which texts are produced and chosen, and the role played by schools, teachers, and most of all, school book publishers in that process.
At present, this seems to be something of a “dark art”, with the parents’ role reduced to that of bill-payer. Until we get such an explanation, we will be left with the suspicion that a large element of “churning” is afoot, of which parents and children are certainly not the beneficiaries. – Yours, etc,
Madam, – I refer to the call by Saint Vincent de Paul on teachers not to prescribe the use of revised editions of textbooks as this prevents books from being passed down from one class to the next, causing financial hardship for parents as they must purchase new books (Home News, August 25th). The blame for this practice lies totally with the publishers who regularly update their textbooks to ensure the purchase of new books. The teachers cannot be expected to prescribe an edition no longer on sale, or to teach a class in which students are working from different texts. This is yet another example of the teachers being blamed for matters beyond their control. – Yours, etc,