It is as yet unclear whether the Keith Rowley administration will face a backlash from this week’s announced decision to suspend the distribution of free textbooks to the majority of students in Trinidad and Tobago in an effort to cut costs across the board.
Reportedly made in Cabinet recently in the wake of the presentation of the country’s 2015-2016 budget in October, the decision announced earlier this week is expected to save TT$119 million. Expenditure on free textbooks in Trinidad and Tobago is now expected to be slashed to TT$19 million.
Under the current system, students are given access to books for the school year, which they must return. The Ministry of Education then replenishes the stock of books since some are lost or damaged. This system applied to books from primary school to Form 6.
This year, only 10 per cent of the books will be replenished for students in form one and primary school infants though the replacement of other special education resources will continue to be fully funded by the government.
As is the case in Guyana where, in theory at least, a free textbook regime is in place, placing the burden of textbook acquisition back on parents could spark a measure of protest. The system of across-the-board free textbook distribution in Guyana had long been quietly shelved, though the local Book Distribution Unit still makes a limited number of textbooks available to schools. Many Guyanese parents, however, have long given up on the available highly unreliable free textbook regime and this newspaper is aware that some children continue to attend school without textbooks.
What may well have, up until now, staved off a more vigorous protest amongst Guyanese parents is the surge of textbook piracy, which over the years has placed significantly cheaper if illegally produced text books on the market. So lucrative is the trade that it is no longer under the exclusive control of illegal operators but has now attracted the attention of established businesses.
Here in Guyana, the official position in the pirating of text books is that the authorities frown on the practice, though Guyana’s copyright laws are archaic and desperately in need of upgrading. However, in reality, the pirated text book trade is patronized by thousands of ordinary Guyanese.
Back in 2010, the Ministry of Education under minister Shaik Baksh had been decidedly evasive when it was publicly accused of complicity in textbook piracy and an investigation was launched. Not that one was needed, the Education Ministry’s dabbling in illegality was the worst kept secret. Thousands of parents were aware that the readers and workbooks provided to their primary school children by the ministry with their flimsy paper covers, shoddily pasted sides and sometimes incorrectly inserted pages were not originals.
By the next year the gig was up and several known overseas publishers indicated that they would be seeking an injunction restricting the illegal production of texts. However, this did not stop the Education Ministry, then under the tenure of minister Priya Manickchand, from inviting local firms to bid to supply primary and secondary texts “of a similar likeness to the original.” Then cabinet secretary Dr Roger Luncheon had stated at the time that it was a cabinet decision to procure photocopied books as original textbooks were too expensive. Weeks later, the overseas publishers were granted their injunction.
It is not known what the Education Ministry’s current position is, but there are still local photocopiers who were not named in the injunction, who carry on the illegal practice.
In Trinidad and Tobago, the National Parent Teacher Association (NPTA) has reportedly responded to the announcement on the virtual removal of the free textbook regime by calling for more information on the matter. The NPTA has also raised concerns regarding the status of access to textbooks by students from low-income families, going forward. “The well-to-do parents could go purchase books but the people who will be most affected are those from the lower socio-economic backgrounds. We hope the ministry could reconsider. The ones that stand to lose are the children from low socio-economic backgrounds who already attend low-performing schools,” an NPTA official was quoted in the Trinidad and Tobago media as saying.
The suspension of the free textbook programme in Trinidad and Tobago follows a recent announcement by former Central Bank Governor Jwala Rambarran that the country was in a recession.
