Now that the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion has fi­nal­ly set a freeze on new text­books un­til 2024, which means text­books should not be added to book­lists and edi­tions not changed - ed­u­ca­tion­al stake­hold­ers are call­ing for stan­dard­i­s­a­tion, text­book grants and more lo­cal con­tent in text­books.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day af­ter the min­istry an­nounced the de­ci­sion, Sanatan Dhar­ma Ma­ha Sab­ha gen­er­al sec­re­tary Vi­jay Ma­haraj said while he sup­ports the text­book freeze, he was con­cerned the roll-out of e-books which the min­istry has em­barked on may not work in all schools.

“Not all schools will have the ca­pac­i­ty to ac­com­mo­date e-books. I think it will be suc­cess­ful on­ly for those peo­ple who are IT savvy. Al­so, some schools may not have Wi-Fi. Right now, sev­er­al ar­eas are with­out one ca­ble chan­nel be­cause the op­tic fi­bre ca­bles are down,” Ma­haraj said.

He ad­mit­ted e-books will be ben­e­fi­cial to some stu­dents.

Ma­haraj said he wel­comed the text­book pol­i­cy, not­ing that many par­ents have been bur­dened by the high costs of text­books. This was why he said many SDMS schools had or­gan­ised book ex­changes to pass text­books from high­er to low­er form stu­dents.

Mean­while, Pres­by­ter­ian Pri­ma­ry Schools Board chair­man Vick­ram Ram­lal al­so sup­port­ed the new pol­i­cy but al­so ex­pressed con­cerns about e-books.

“It’s a good ini­tia­tive but stu­dents should have de­vices and con­nec­tiv­i­ty,” he said.

Ram­lal al­so rec­om­mend­ed some form of text­book stan­dard­i­s­a­tion.

“While there is a need for some form of stan­dard­i­s­a­tion, the prin­ci­pals must have choic­es as well be­cause what is fit for one school might not be suit­able for an­oth­er school de­pend­ing on cul­ture and en­vi­ron­ment,” he ex­plained.

Ram­lal al­so lament­ed that the Text­book Com­mit­tee of the min­istry has been non-func­tion­al for years.

Asked what has been done to as­sist strug­gling par­ents, Ram­lal said the Pres­by­ter­ian Church had a Board of So­cial Re­spon­si­bil­i­ty which as­sists par­ents and stu­dents.

Mean­while, Con­cerned Par­ents Move­ment pres­i­dent Clarence Men­doza said the pol­i­cy was long over­due.

“We are hap­py to see the Min­istry of Ed­u­ca­tion is tak­ing heed. Based on the cost of liv­ing, it is hard for par­ents to pur­chase books, even used books cost an arm and a leg.”

How­ev­er, he said the ini­tia­tive should be ex­tend­ed for three to five years.

“We should go to 2026, as a pi­lot project,” he added.

So­cial me­dia in­flu­encer Nigel Wat­son, aka NCW, who made a pub­lic video re­cent­ly about the “text­book mafia,” al­so com­mend­ed the Min­is­ter of Ed­u­ca­tion for the new text­book pol­i­cy.

“As a par­ent, I spoke out against the text­book mafia and I am hap­py the min­istry is tak­ing steps to con­trol this whole sys­tem when it comes to text­books. It is a lit­tle too late but I ap­pre­ci­ate it still be­cause for years, par­ents have been strug­gling with text­books. I ap­plaud this move,” he said.

Dur­ing back-to-school shop­ping, many par­ents com­plained about the costs of text­books and new edi­tions placed on book­lists.

Min­is­ter re­sponds

Con­tact­ed for com­ment yes­ter­day, Ed­u­ca­tion Min­is­ter Dr Nyan Gads­by-Dol­ly said the ebook ini­tia­tive is part of the Dig­i­tal Trans­for­ma­tion Plan.

“Con­nec­tiv­i­ty at schools, along with the con­tin­ued em­pha­sis on the pro­vi­sion of de­vices, is an­oth­er. They go hand in hand and are pro­gress­ing si­mul­ta­ne­ous­ly,” she said.

The Min­is­ter al­so said her min­istry does not have a pol­i­cy that guides the for­mu­la­tion of school book­lists.

“I am a par­ent and I know from per­son­al ex­pe­ri­ence that the chang­ing of text­books and edi­tions from year to year can be very cost­ly for par­ents. In ad­di­tion, the min­istry must put a pol­i­cy in place which guides which books are placed on book­lists, as the is­sue of qual­i­ty is a crit­i­cal one,” she added.

She not­ed that while this pol­i­cy is be­ing ad­dressed, which will in­clude the use of e-books and e-re­sources, book­lists will re­main un­changed, al­low­ing par­ents to reuse text­books as much as pos­si­ble.