New text book editions ‘just a cash cow for publishers’

A SECONDARY school teacher has described unnecessary new editions of school text books as a ‘cash cow’ for publishers.

Luke Saunders, who teaches geography, biology and junior cycle science, said there is ‘absolutely no need’ for text books to be updated unless there are major changes to the curriculum.

Speaking to the Irish Daily Mail, the teacher from Jesus and Mary Secondary School in Enniscrone, Co. Sligo, said slight updates do not warrant a new edition, and the changes can be covered by a teacher in the classroom. ‘We always, as teachers, are keeping an eye on improvements and a text book is part of a teacher’s tool kit in delivering a curriculum,’ he explained. ‘The idea that you would have to update it because a couple of paragraph has changed … it’s not necessary.

‘The fault lies with the publishers and its almost forcing schools down this road.’

Mr Saunders, who also founded study resource website Studyclix, called for more schools to offer a rental scheme to ease the financial burden on parents.

‘It’s one of the most simple, effective things a school could do to ease the economic burden put on parents,’ he added. ‘In our school… the student gets the full book list for €40 every year, which is very affordable for parents.’

Laura Erskine, of mummypages.ie, has called on the Government to take actions, urging it to ‘step in and set standards when it comes to publishers’. ‘They need to establish some sort of rule governing what sort of level of change is required… and determine what’s an appropriate timeframe within which school books can change, and whether those updates are critical or not,’ she said.

In a statement, the Department of Education said the Irish Educational Publishers’ Association subscribe to a Code of Practice, which states they will not revise textbooks within four years.

It added it provides €16.5million to 95% of primary and 68% of secondary schools to run book rental schemes.