End text book rip-off [Independent.ie]
- Published: 10 May 2011
THIS autumn, parents will be paying up to €400 for textbooks for a son or daughter starting first or fifth year in secondary school, and €100 in the case of a child starting primary school. For some, at a time of such distress and pressure for families, the bill will seem the last straw. And with the last straw could come what middle-class families would regard as the last resort.
Audry Deane of the St Vincent de Paul Society says that increasing numbers of parents cannot afford to buy the textbooks. They have to seek the society's help.
Why must they spend so much money -- money they can ill afford -- on this item?
In the first place, textbooks are expensive, and no wonder, considering the high standards of production. But secondly, there are far too many of them. New editions constantly appear, ostensibly for the sake of necessary updating but very often with only tiny changes which add little or nothing to a reader's knowledge.
And what amounts to a necessary update?
Full Story: www.independent.ie
