Different strokes for parents, schools, publishers as prices of books spike in new academic year

For parents, it’s another season of groaning  as they have to eke out money to buy books at virtually twice their original cost as schools resumed with over- the- roof prices of  their prescribed textbooks.

For parents, it’s all the more frustrating given that purchase of textbooks and workbooks, which was once a straightforward, once-in-a-session ritual  has now morphed into  a recurring financial  burden now at a time citizens are groaning under serious economic hardship that is sapping their financial energy to the level of asphyxiation.

Most private schools now harp on  the purchase of new books by publishers with humongous price-tags. The age long tradition  when families could pass down textbooks from older to younger siblings to lessen  the burden of school costs has become history.

What used to be a  cheery spectacle of  many parents watching their children return to class has been overshadowed by the crushing weight of rising school expenses. From tuition and levies to uniforms and textbooks, the cost of education has never felt heavier, forcing families into painful financial choices.

Parents now find themselves hemmed in  between the willingness  to  give their children and wards  quality education, and the harsh reality of dwindling household incomes.

Families Groan

In many households, this month of September, which is the month schools resumed from public holiday,  has parents against each other, turning homes into tense budget battles, with some parents recycling old uniforms, while others dip into savings just to keep their children adequately equipped for the new term.

Private schools, which can never be caught napping, offer impregnable defence for the frequent changes in textbooks and prices, arguing that they are  pushed by the  imperative of curriculum updates and the need to maintain academic standards. But parents describe the practice as not only exploitative but also  unsustainable.

The development  has become so precarious  that education, once celebrated as the ultimate leveller, is now  skirting in the realm of luxury, something only the  rich  can comfortably afford. For middle and low income families, a new school year is no longer a season of excitement but one of survival.

In the  Alakuko area of Lagos where she sells pepper and tomatoes and other food items, Aishat  Ogundele voiced her frustration over what she railed against as an unbearable rise in textbook costs for her three  children.

“I must tell you, I’m not happy at all, the  payment for the books is just way beyond me, I don’t have that kind of money. I just can’t kill myself because of textbooks. I have tried to put it in my subconscious, I don’t want it to  bother me  because of high blood pressure, and that is why I have been avoiding school. What we received this year is far higher than last term,” she told Business Hallmark.

According to the Ogun State native, her  eldest son,  Bolaji, a Junior Secondary School 3 pupil was handed  a book list totalling about N100,000, while her younger daughter Gbemisola, in Primary 4, had another list worth N40,000, excluding tuition fees.

“All the books cannot be passed to my younger child because they have been written inside. During our time, we  used textbooks handed down  to us by our  elder brothers. Back then, if you purchased  Larcombe Mathematics  for Primary One, another child could still use it in Primary Two. But now, it is one child to one textbook. Getting money these days is not easy at all,” she lamented with brows furrowed.

Aishat noted that  the issue is not only about dire financial straits, there’s the emotional turmoil to it , making so many households feel unnerving.

Deeply frustrated she admitted that often as a matter of policy she sometimes  avoids going to her children’s school because of the  never ending  pressure to make immediate payments. For her, textbooks have become a driver of  stress and anxiety.

At Sango, another parent,  Feyisayo Odunlami told Business Hallmark that  while tuition fees in her  daughter’s school have remained relatively stable, the real challenge is in the  textbooks themselves.

“Come to think of it, the  money for textbooks keeps going up  every term, and that is not okay, it’s affecting my meagre income. It’s like a conspiracy hatched by some authors-turned emergency publishers and  the school management to fleece we parents. This is totally unacceptable to  us.

Even though they did not increase the school fees this term, the cost of textbooks is something else. For textbooks like Social Studies, they come with workbooks. The children write inside them, so you cannot pass them down to another student. That is why schools insist that parents must buy new copies again. I heard that some state governments have banned it, but it has not come into effect, because in my children’s school they still brought workbooks and textbooks that the children have to work inside”, she said.

For  her, the issue goes beyond just spending money; it  mirrors the growing impossibility of sharing resources among families.

She stated that some   English and Mathematics textbooks without workbooks could still be reused, most other subjects forced parents into a cycle of constant replacement.

For  Dare Adebo, a roadside mechanic at Iju Ishaga bus stop, the 41- year -old father of four said that  he has been overwhelmed by the compulsory purchase of new textbooks.

“I’m confused, it’s as if the school has made up its mind to give me hypertension, I can’t sleep, I keep thinking of  textbooks and school fees. We are tired and don’t know what to do. They have made it compulsory for us to buy textbooks from the school,” he lamented.

According to him, the prices of the textbooks, which can not be passed to another child to use have risen by 60 percent. It’s now difficult to send children to school.”

He stated that  a Primary Two pupil’s English, Mathematics, and Basic Science textbooks now cost about N5,500 each, while the cheapest items, such as Quantitative and Verbal Reasoning, are fixed at N3,000. For parents with more than one child, she pointed out, the bills quickly multiply into thousands.

Some States Intervene

As the loud lamentations of parents ricochet  across the country, some state governments have begun to act. For example , Imo State government  has placed a ban on the exploitative tradition of schools  changing textbooks  yearly,  ordering  that approved titles must remain in force  for at least four years. Commissioner for Education, Prof Bernard Ikegwuoha,  noted that the measure would assist  siblings reuse books and reduce costs, while also bringing more consistency to teaching and learning.

He said  that teachers, too, would benefit from the stability of using the same materials across sessions, instead of constantly adjusting to new ones, and cautioned private school owners of introducing unapproved textbooks, emphasizing that violators risk sanctions, including loss of accreditation.

The news of the action by the Imo State government was refreshing not only to parents but to The National Orientation Agency,  which welcomed the decision, with its Director-General, Lanre Issa-Onilu, describing it as a relief for parents. He  appealed to  other states to adopt similar reforms to make education more affordable.

Abia State has also joined the fray, introducing some reforms geared towards lessening  the financial  burden  on families. The government directed schools to separate textbooks from workbooks, ending the practice of merging them into single consumable volumes.

Commissioner for Basic and Secondary Education, Goodluck Ubochi,  noted that  the old practice was deliberately made  to arm twist parents into buying fresh copies every year.

He stated that the separation would  give room for parents to reuse textbooks across siblings, while only workbooks, which are written in, would need to be replaced.

This, he argued, would immediately ease household spending on education.

Ubochi warned  that the new rules would be supported  by monitoring mechanisms, giving stern warning that schools found breaking  the order would face sanctions ranging from heavy fines to suspension of operating licences.

Other states like Ogun, Oyo and Ondo states have come up with similar directives to protect parents from further exploitation.

But some schools’ proprietors blame the textbooks crisis on the activities of pirates. Some of them, who spoke to Business Hallmark are of the view that piracy in Nigeria’s book industry is increasing  the challenges faced by schools and parents already  bedeviled  with the rising cost of education.

The proprietor of  Jolayemi International School, located in Command area of Lagos, Abiola Jolayemi told Business Hallmark that the proliferation of pirated textbooks is not only affecting  legitimate publishers but also responsible for high cost of textbooks.

“Let me be frank with you, the activities of pirates are undermining the effort to make books available at affordable prices for parents”.

An English teacher in one of the reputable schools in Lagos, who craved anonymity told BH that  destructive effect of piracy has become deeply embedded  in the market, making it increasingly difficult to control the circulation of authentic textbooks.

“We cannot disregard the activity of  piracy. If we reminisce on how it all began, we used Macmillan and got somebody to bring in books for us. The ones brought in were pirated copies. Nowadays, every brand you see in the market, including Macmillan, has pirated versions,” he noted.

The Chairman, Board of Trustees of the National Parent Teacher Association of Nigeria, Adeolu Ogunbanjo, in a recent interview  warned that the spike in cost of textbooks is giving parents unnecessary stress and placing an unbearable burden on parents across the country.

He  put the blame on annual  changes in textbooks approved by the National Educational Research and Development Council, which, according to him, force parents to buy new books every academic session.

“The high cost of textbooks is terrible. I pity parents, especially now that my own children are buying textbooks for their children,” he said.

“We used to rely on our older brothers’ and sisters’ textbooks. But right now, I don’t know why the NERDC insists that all textbooks must change yearly. Students are also made to use workbooks that become useless after one year,” he lamented.