Students Still Wait For Hsc Textbooks

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday January 27, 2001

Julia Baird, Education Writer

Just days before the school year begins, teachers and students have attacked the Education Department over lack of textbooks for the new HSC.

Textbooks for several subjects, including science and business studies, are still being written while some students have complained they have no new textbooks at all.

The State Government has told teachers to ``get on with the job" and use old textbooks or surf the Internet, but book publishers claim the department has failed to recognise teachers and students need new textbooks.

The head of the Science Teachers Association, Mrs Jill Tacon, said there were still gaps in textbook requirements, although most were being written now. They were waiting for earth and environmental science texts, with three more physics and one more senior science book in the pipeline.

Telling teachers to rely on old textbooks was not helpful, Mrs Tacon said.

``I think it's used by government to sweep the issue under the carpet, because in the sciences, to use the old textbooks is inadequate because the syllabus has changed so dramatically ... I think the Net needs to be used but not all students or schools have adequate access to the Internet."

In late 1999, 23 per cent of Australian households had access to the Internet at home, most from wealthy areas.

The president of the English Teachers Association, Ms Sue Gazis, said the major issue for the English syllabus was money for computer programs and new books, particularly for boys.

Mr Martin Pearson, convener of the Australian Publishers Association's Schools Education Publishing Committee, said the education community was ``bitterly disappointed" at the lack of consultation, at the department's failure to recognise the important role of the textbook and at the absence of specific funding for buying textbooks and resources generally.

``Only at the Education Department level is there a belief that old texts will do."

Mr Pearson said the publishers' association had warned the State Government that new textbooks could not be produced in time for the new HSC.

It took six months to write and six months to produce and print the resources.

But a spokeswoman for the Education Minister, Mr Aquilina, said students would be provided with textbooks when they needed them, and teachers could just use the existing textbooks and resources ``as they have been trained to do".

``People are just putting up barriers again ... it is just silly ... get on with the job, the students are ready to go back to school," she said. ``The new HSC is not about providing people with textbooks, it's about value adding to the curriculum."

Students have logged onto the board's Web site to complain about the problem. One wrote: ``Year 12 last year complained about the Olympics as a distraction but not having the material we need is a big distraction."

The president of the Economics and Business Educators Association, Mr Robert Van Houten, said no textbooks would be provided for economics by major publishers, as it was too small a market to be profitable.