補習-E-books the way to slash costs, says schools chief

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The Education Bureau is pushing for a new SAR- wide scheme in which electronic textbooks will be used in all primary and secondary schools to deflect the rising cost of printed materials.
Secretary for Education Michael Suen Ming- yeung said the current practice of publishers bundling most textbooks for sale must change, because it has resulted in surging prices and market distortions.

The failure of the bureau to persuade publishers to sell textbooks separately from teaching resources has made them reluctant to reduce prices.

Publishers said they can only debundle half of primary school textbooks.

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Suen said yesterday: "There are already a lot of e-learning materials available in the market. Unfortunately, they are not organized according to the requirements of our curriculum development."

He said he will ask that a new e-version be launched next year to meet the criteria of the bureau.

The new scheme aims to keep prices down by creating a diversified learning environment and make optimal use of advanced information technology in schools.

Led by Undersecretary for Education Kenneth Chen Wei-on, the task force reviewed learning and teaching materials over the past six months.

It made key recommendations to facilitate the development of the e-textbook market.

The task force noted that since 1998, the government has invested nearly HK$9 billion in implementing three IT strategies in education.

It has likewise spent another HK$400 million on developing e-learning resources.

Suen said incentives are being considered to attract new entrants, such as relevant organizations and professionals, to the market and develop quality and reasonably priced e-textbooks.

However, he could not say how much cheaper textbooks will be once the measures are implemented.

"But I can assure you that e-textbooks will spark more competition and regulate the distorted textbook market, while providing greater choice of effective learning and teaching resources," Suen said.

He also mentioned the "double-blind" system for conducting textbook reviews.

"[Non-Education Bureau] external reviewers will not be given information on the publishers or writers of the textbooks to ensure objectivity," he said.