Average 8.51 Per Cent Increase in Textbook Prices – CAC

The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) has reported the findings of this year’s annual school textbook survey, which was conducted between August 8 and 12.

Speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, today (September 13), the CAC’s Director of Research, Racquel White, said the findings revealed that there was an average 8.51 per cent increase in textbook prices.

“In the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, it’s just about seven per cent and among the rural towns it was a little higher, as there was an 11 per cent increase. [The prices for] more than half of the books that we looked at were between one per cent and 10 per cent,” she noted.

Mrs. White pointed out that the cost for about a quarter of the books increased between 11 per cent and 20 per cent.

“Five Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) books increased in the 21 per cent to 30 per cent range and there were three books that increased just above 50 per cent,” she added.

The findings of the report also showed that “just over one-tenth of the books that we looked at, reduced between 0.1 per cent and 10 per cent. The largest reduction was about 21 per cent for one of the CAPE books,” Mrs. White said.

On average, there was a 36 per cent difference between the highest and lowest price observed for textbooks islandwide, except for literature novels, where the average was 84 per cent. This was due to differences in the cover (hard/soft), publishers, and sources.

Within the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area and among rural towns, however, the average difference was 21 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, for all textbooks, except for literature novels, where the difference between the highest and lowest price was, on average, 56 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively.

Mrs. White said the survey, which is usually conducted in July each year, “is to provide consumers, parents, and guardians with very important information on a critical consumer item, and that is textbooks.”

“This year we conducted the survey in the period of August 8 to 12, and this is later than the time in which we usually do the survey; the survey is usually done close to the end of July. But we had consultations with the Book Industry Association of Jamaica (BIAJ), and they advised us that this would be a good time for us to do the survey because, by then, the bookstores would have received most of their new stock,” she pointed out.

Mrs. White shared that the survey was conducted across three educational levels in all parishes except Hanover, as there were no known bookstores identified.

“Unlike previous years when we targetted the entire population of known bookstores, this year we targetted a sample of bookstores across Kingston and rural parishes,” she explained.

To gather data for the survey, a sample of 49 bookstores or 72 per cent of known outlets were visited, 12 of which were in the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area. The remaining stores were in rural towns islandwide.

Additionally, the CAC conducted an online survey on three of the major book chains that had an online presence.

The Director of Research said the CAC worked closely with the Ministry of Education and Youth to compile a list of the most popular textbooks that are used at the infant, primary and secondary school levels for inclusion in the survey. There was also the use of some tertiary books.

“There is a guideline that the Ministry uses to ensure that we covered the books that parents must purchase for the back-to-school period,” Mrs. White noted.

In keeping with the Ministry’s guidelines, a total of 173 popular textbooks were used in the survey. The list included 12 from the infant level, 57 from the primary level, and 104 from the secondary level. The books, combined, covered 19 subject areas.

Mrs. White said observations revealed that while infant and primary level texts were readily available in most outlets visited, the availability of other texts was generally low as some bookstores indicated that they had not received their new stocks at the time of the survey.

Other bookstores indicated that they had delayed ordering their new stocks due to the uncertainties experienced in the education sector, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data from the survey is available on the CAC’s website at https://www.cac.gov.jm/portal/index.php.

Persons may also download the CAC app from the Google Play and Apple Play stores to view the data.