‘Chaos’ on textbooks

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33815, 11 April 1975, Page 2

‘Chaos’ on textbooks

(N.Z. Press Association) ROTORUA, April 10. Education in New Zealand would suffer severely if a hasty decision was made to supply school textbooks by tender, Mr J. H. Richards, president of the Book Publisher’s Association, said today.

Mr Richards was comment, ing at the association’s annual conference on remarks made by the Leader of the Opposition (Mr Muldoon) on Tuesday. Mr Muldoon said at the Booksellers’ Association conference that the Government had called for tenders for the supply of school textbooks. Mr Richards said that the complex problems of. supplying each school with its' selection of books from the thousands in use could not be solved by any single tenderer. “These books come from several hundred publishers, so that ordering requires a complete knowledge of sources of supply, changing prices, and availability of the

required books,” Mr Richards said. The co-ordination and ordering of the textbooks required by 3000 primary, intermediate, and secondary schools required experience that was available only to skilled booksellers and their staffs, he said. “But quite apart from the experience, warehousing, and staff required to handle the books and give them to the schools, there are the more serious implications for teachers and education generally,” he said. Schools now had a personal service which enabled them to inspect and select books from the hundreds of booksellers throughout New Zealand.

If a single tenderer, or even several, were contracted by the Government to supply the majority of books, there was no way in which teachers could have that service. Chaos could result if that service to teachers were removed, because booksellers would be unable to display books in their shops or take them into the schools as they did at present.

“These serious disadvantages and frightening

possibilities are the considered view of British, American, and Australian publishers as well as members of the New Zealand association.

“I urge the Minister of Education (Mr Amos) to defer any decision on supplying textbooks by tender till he has considered the serious consequences that will undoubtedly follow,” said Mr Richards.