The effort to encourage schools to reuse textbooks has faced several major obstacles, and all parties concerned will have to work together to tackle them, says an article in People's Daily. The following is an excerpt:

 

China has 220 million students in schools of all types. If we assume that one student uses 15 textbooks per school year, that means Chinese students will use more than 3 billion textbooks every year. That is equivalent to 550,000 tons of paper, or about 11 million trees.

 

A new item -- "the nation encourages the reuse of textbooks" -- has been added to the revised Compulsory Education Law, effective last September. If each book costs 15 yuan (US$1.90), we could save more than 45 billion yuan by reusing those 3 billion textbooks for one school year, or 225 billion yuan if they could be reused for five consecutive years.

 

Schools in some parts of China have already started experimenting with reused textbooks, but it has been difficult to expand the practice, despite its popularity. The main reasons are as follows:

 

First, textbooks are revised frequently. China's primary and secondary school textbooks are distributed only by Xinhua Bookstores. These textbooks undergo slight alterations every year, and the changes are usually not made public until the textbooks are distributed. In addition, the recent reformation of the curriculum increased the diversity of the textbooks available, which makes textbook recycling more difficult.

 

Second, some parents are not so keen on reused books. Many parents believe that they can pay for new textbooks even though they are not rich. Many parents are simply not willing to let their kids use old textbooks. They are generally willing to pay for brand-new textbooks every semester.

 

Third, the textbook industry involves the interests of many parties. Reusing textbooks would undoubtedly erode the profits of publishing houses. Textbooks for subjects covered by compulsory education create some 30 billion yuan worth of revenue for these companies every year. Even if half of the textbooks needed for a year are reused, publishing houses and distribution companies could see their profits plummet by 50 percent.

 

Schools are reluctant to adopt such a policy because they would have to use money and energy to support it.

 

All sides concerned must make a concerted effort to tackle these difficulties. Society needs to get over its aversion to using old books. The government should order primary and secondary schools to reuse books, while at the same time keeping revisions to a minimum. Schools should also help by sterilizing and restoring old books so that they can be safely used again.

 

(China Daily July 18, 2007)