Textbook Hire Schemes

I wonder if anyone out there has an opinion about the Textbook Hire Scheme and the way it has evolved over the past decade.

When our oldest child was introduced to the scheme he would be given the text books and had to return them at the end of the year. If they were damaged, the parent has to pay for them.

This has slowly changed over time and now that our youngest child is in year 10 I have quite literally never seen one of her textbooks since she has been at highschool. They have renamed it the "Textbook and Resources Hire Scheme" and no text books are given out to the child. They share a textbook in the class room or are given photocopies to use.

This is worrying on many levels.

The child has no textbook to refer to for homework or ongoing learning.
The parent can not see what work the child is doing.
We have no way of knowing if the textbook is a recent edition (textbooks could never be passed down between siblings as they were usually superseded)
When the child has time off school for what ever reason, they have no textbook to refer to in order to 'keep up'.

I no longer want to participate in this scheme and now I have to write to the principal and give my reasons. I find that ridiculous.

I feel that a student without constant access to textbooks is like a tradesman who has been separated from his tools.

One can only wonder if this scheme allows teaching and learning standards to slip. Aren't outcomes more important then the schools budget?

Tags: Textbooks, highschool, hire, homework, learning, textbook

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Comment by Anne Roberts on April 3, 2011 at 14:44: We have this "textbook hire" scheme at our school as well. Books are often in poor condition when received yet we do not get the opportunity to sign anything to say this. Also as my daughter is now in yr 9 and has received her MacBook computer surely all relevant current textbooks are available online so why are we paying a fee for text book hire?

Comment by Anthony Eric Bridges on March 10, 2011 at 15:13: This is interesting. I would have thought it better if the child kept his/her books at home and the school provided either photocopies or electronic vision of texts in the classroom for the lesson. This solves the problem of parents not being able to see the texts and also avoids the need for students to carry very heavy bags full of books around the school grounds

Comment by Emma Anderson on February 27, 2011 at 9:26: I have investigated opting out of the textbook hire scheme. The protocol is that I have to make application to the principal to do so.

I have made numerous requests for a textbook list but apparently this does not exist and the school is now trying to compile this list for me.

I remember even when I was at school 30 years ago that my 6 siblings and I could rarely 'hand down' text books because new editions or new books were requested each year.

I am now concerned that the school is using out of date text books and trying to find them for my child will be almost impossible.

I don't consider $50 expensive for a textbook as many families pay this for Playstation/Wii/Xbox games without a second thought.

What I do consider expensive is a second rate education for my child who will then have less chance of becoming a vital future tax-payer.

Comment by Avril Haining on February 26, 2011 at 20:24: Textbook and resource schemes are a bit of a quandary.

It is a way of raising funds for a school and helping to cover expensive photocopying costs. Some textbooks are very expensive ($50 - $60 per book) and the loss and non-return rate is high not to mention the damage and graffiti that happens. Schools are now looking more and more at technology (laptops, iPads etc) that can be used in a multitude of ways rather than single-use, heavy, expensive texts.

Despite the move to digital learning, students studying senior subjects such as physics, chemistry, biology, history do need to have the body of knowledge that is contained in texts. (Some texts are increasingly becoming available as eBooks.)

As a parent of a high school child who has paid the textbook levy I expect clean texts and no sharing. If students have to share, it means the school didn't budget properly!

Does anyone have the experience of their child being denied texts, photocopied handouts etc because they have chosen not to pay the levy?