Outcry As A School Hires Out Textbooks
Sydney Morning Herald
Friday April 18, 1997
A government high school is blaming severe funding cuts for its decision to stop students taking English books home unless they pay a hire charge.
Macksville High School has told parents that students will be able to use the English texts - a mandatory part of the course - inside the classroom but must pay a $6 annual hiring fee to use them at home.
English is the only compulsory subject in all high school years.
While parents have become used to paying voluntary contributions and fees for elective courses such as photography, food technology or visual arts, it is still unusual for schools to charge non-refundable fees for using essential items in compulsory subjects.
The president of the NSW Federation of Parents and Citizens' Associations, Ms Ros Brennan, said the school might be in breach of the Education Reform Act, which specifies that instruction provided in government schools must be free of charge.
"We are talking about set texts," Ms Brennan said. "We are talking about material central to the delivery of the curriculum.
"If materials are central to the delivery of the curriculum they are to be provided free of charge in public schools.
"It is a matter of principle. It is the thin edge of the privatisation of the public education wedge."
Macksville High School's principal was unavailable for comment yesterday but it is understood the school asks parents to pay a relatively low voluntary contribution fee.
Ms Brennan said the charge for using English texts in a high school was ironic, given the State Government's new literacy program, which focuses on literacy in Year 7.
"It is difficult to work out how you would encourage the students to pursue literacy studies at home if they don't have the books," she said.
"All of these issues relate directly to questions of equity."
In a note to parents, the school said severe cutbacks to the budget meant it was no longer able to provide set English texts for use outside of school free of charge.
"Such a small charge will ensure that new and replacement books can continually be purchased and the condition of books kept to a high standard," the note said.
Some copies of the books would be available from the library.
A Department of School Education spokesman said that if schools were having trouble getting textbooks back at the end of the year in reasonable condition there was nothing to stop them charging a fee.
He said there had been no cutback in funding of school textbooks and the decision to charge students was school-based.
The most recent survey of school charges by the Federation of P&Cs revealed subject levies charged by schools across the State had increased since 1993.
On average, students are charged $32 for visual arts, $19 for computer studies and vocational education courses cost on average $68.
© 1997 Sydney Morning Herald