Basic Learning Materials Initiative

The reason why so many projects and book provision schemes have not had greater and more lasting impact is the fact that wider considerations have been ignored in the design of projects, and books in these projects have been considered a mere commodity.

In addition, many textbook projects have not taken into account the experience gained over many years by professional publishers. A tendency among educators and project designers has been to consider the problems related to book provision as restricted to two areas of book production, namely manuscript preparation and printing.

The result of this is that the intricacies and professional requirements of the many operations of the publishing process, such as planning and management, editing, illustration, layout, typesetting and distribution, and the cultivation of reading habits, have been ignored, as has the economic background. Insufficient funding remains the most quoted reason why so little impact has been made by both book development projects and by international and national workshops and seminars for the development of appropriate textbooks and supplementary reading materials.
Publishing and book provision are complex processes in which nothing can be ignored without serious consequences for success. There is no point in developing manuscripts if they cannot be printed, or printing books if there is no popular demand for them and if there is no distribution system to ensure that books will reach the readers.

In the area of book provision, examples abound of breaks in the book chain. Curriculum materials have been developed but not printed and distributed. Skilled people have no resources to work with in one place, and technologically advanced printing machinery and pre-press production facilities gather dust because the servicing, maintenance and supply of consumable materials are lacking, or there are no skilled personnel to use the equipment. There are unacceptable levels of wastage in production and the development of instructional materials for different levels of education is unbalanced. The pages of textbooks are used and sold in the markets as wrapping paper while no books are available in schools. Or books and other materials are available in schools, but the content of the books is educationally poor and, in some places, few books areavailable in the mother tongue.

Past and ongoing efforts in the area of book development have focused on building skills for the development of relevant curriculum materials. The provision of funding, the establishment of facilities for the production of materials and the introduction of new
technology are all important, but dealing with them separately has notproduced improvements. It has been clearly shown by these projects that the problems of providing learning materials for schools and non-formal education programmes are not limited to a lack of technical skills and funding.

This does not mean that previous projects have been a waste of effort. Many projects must be regarded as successful when measured against their terms of reference. But since they were not designed with regard tothe wider background against which the provision of learning materials operates - that is, the book sector - even significant gains in thearea of curriculum materials development have not had the intended impact on the quality of the education provided in the classroom.

The book sector

The 'book sector' is a term used to describe all activities concerned with the writing, publishing, production, printing, distribution, sale, promotion and utilization of books and other printed materials. The term emphasizes the multiple uses of books and covers more than the publishing sector, which focuses only on the business of publishing.

The book sector includes everyone and everything to do with books, whether in a public or private, commercial or non-commercial, large or small context, and it emphasizes the interdependence and interrelatedness of all economic, social, cultural and statistical aspects of book production and consumption.

In order to progress, publishing depends on the existence of efficientlinkages between different interests and forces in society: a weak link in the chain can undermine it completely.

The 'book chain' is a term used for the processes required to take a book from the author to the reader and for the linkages between authors and publishers, publishers and printers, publisher and book seller, and bookseller and consumers. It is also a way of describing how different institutions work together and depend upon each other within the book sector. The term suggests how books link readers to one another despite distances or cultural differences and circumstances. A book chain always relates to a specific situation, while the book sector relates to awider perspective and is made up of an infinite number of different book chains.(See Figure 1 on page 29.)

Later in this guide, a more detailed study will be made of the

Fig 1 : Click to enlarge

professional and industrial aspects of publishing and the way these linkages work.

The national framework/context

In most countries, the provision and production of instructional materials are regarded as the responsibility of the Ministry of Education and the Ministry has an interest in maintaining control over which books are published, the quality of their content and presentation and their availability.

However, in important matters related to the viability and cost of publication, the Ministry of Education depends on the decisions and policies of other ministries as well.

In theory, the strength of the book sector depends on three different things: publishing capacity, production capacity and market demand for books. None of these elements alone makes a publishing enterprise prosper. They depend on one another.

In reality, government intervention in policies, legislation, planning, financing and especially in the provision of instructional materials has an overriding influence on the viability and success of national publishing.

The complexity of publishing is reflected in the fact that establishing and maintaining a publishing policy is not the responsibility of a single ministry.

The availability and cost of consumables for printing are largely determined by the taxes and duties imposed. Domestic printing and paper manufacture are the responsibility of the Ministry of Industry, while import andexport regulations for paper, machinery and printed materials fall under the Ministry of Trade. The availability of foreign exchange (which determines a country's ability to import paper, machinery and printed materials), income tax, and regulations regarding write-offs and depreciation come under the Ministry of Finance or the Central Bank. Policies concerning raw materials are often the province of the Ministry of Agriculture.National language policies, the licensing of printing presses and the administration of publishing and printing ordinances are determined by the Ministry of Culture. Finally, national deposit law, company laws and rules for the administration of businesses and incentives availablefor industries, copyright issues and so on are decided by the Ministry of Justice.

It may be difficult to make a policy that provides favourable conditions for publishing, but it has to be done. The production of learning materials for the education sector is, because of the quantities involved, animportant source of income for publishing and no publishing industry can succeed without it. Government policies for the provision of books for schools and non-formal education programmes set the conditions under which a private publishing company can exist.

In developed countries, textbooks and other learning materials represent between 25 and 50 per cent of all publishing income. In developing countries, school textbooks can represent up to 95 per cent of the local publishing market. In America, for example, which has one of the world's biggest publishing industries, in 1980 there were around 65,000 people employed in publishing and total sales amounted to approximately US$6 billion. The following breakdown of this total shows that textbooks and reference books account for almost half of the sales:

Reference books, encyclopædias and professional books	US$1.2 billion
Elementary, secondary and college texts	US$1.5 billion
Book clubs and direct mail sales	US$1.0 billion
Trade books (books for the general public)	US$1.0 billion
Mass-market paperbacks	US$0.7 billion

Thesefigures(2) are of major interest for an enterprise that traditionally does not generate high profits.

Since it is often difficult to persuade other ministries to recognize educational priorities, policies which could lower the cost of book production for the private sector (such as tax incentives, the lowering of import duties on the raw materials and machinery necessary for publishing, access to foreign exchange for the purchase of raw materials and the establishment of enterprise zones to help new industries) are not designed to lower the price of books. In many cases, the activities of one ministry may go counter to those of another.

Again, literacy programmes organized by the Ministries of Education or Culture may fail because of a lack of paper for the printing of literacy materials owing to high import duties on paper imposed by the Ministry of Finance or the Ministry of Trade.

The tax on imported paper and printed materials, designed to support local paper manufacturing industries, is in many developing countries as much as 100 to 150 per cent. However, the manufacturing costs oflocally made paper are often greater than those of imported paper. Furthermore, if the local product is of poor quality, many printers are reluctant to use it. The result is that the printing of books becomes an unprofitable business. The best support for education might be to assist local paper manufacturers to make higher quality paper or to find another solution to the problem.

If solutions are to be found to these technical, as opposed to educational, matters, the educational planner must be aware of such contradictions and must develop when necessary, and in consultation with decision-makers from other ministries, a strategy that balances concerns related to the cost and quality of learning materials with strategies which promote the development of national industries. Such strategies make up a 'national book policy'. Considering the importance for all other publishing activities of government policies for the provision of learning materials for the education sector, it is essential that such policies be comprehensive and well prepared and not just a result of a series of ad hoc decisions and traditional practices. A national book policy must deal with all issues and set conditions for co-operation between the public and private sector in publishing. Policies for the provision of learning materials for the education sector are an important element in the national book policy.

Financially, the provision and production of instructional materials is particularly complicated because normal economic considerations do not apply. With demand determined by government policies and not by purchasing power, and more often than not with insufficient funding to undertake the task, the Ministry of Education is faced with the challenge of producing sufficient materials in the most cost-effective way.

Depending on circumstances, there are various ways of achieving this. Individual countries need to develop strategies for achieving the goals set for book provision for the education sector.

A government can take various approaches. Many developing countries lack a publishing sector to produce learning materials; Ministries of Education often develop and produce all curriculum materials themselves. In countries with a well-developed book sector, it is more common for the Ministry of Education to subcontract part of its work. The purchase of competitively priced materials from abroad has, in many cases, proved unsuccessful from the economic and quality points of view.

Recent projects and recommendations made by various studies indicate that the trend in textbook projects is towards a greater involvement of the private sector with the government assuming more supervisory and monitoring duties. In some countries, book production units established by the Ministry of Education are restructured as either private publishers or government-owned publishing companies and are expected to operate on a commercial basis.

Identifying the real problem

The conditions for book development differ not only from country to country but also within a country. Despite differences between countries, there are common problems and, for these problems, there is a range of solutions. First, it is important to understand the requirements of book provision and development, and to identify the main problems and resources availablefor making progress.

A country's potential for developing, producing, distributing and using quality learning materials to boost educational performance depends on:

- government policies, planning and budgeting;

- the qualifications of the teachers;

-the state of the book sector (its capacity to publish, produce and distribute books and other printed materials and the market demand for books).

As already mentioned, government intervention in the policies, legislation, planning and financing of various book-related projects has a determining influence on the viability of other national publishing activities. The lack of clear government policies and plans for the provision of learning materials to meet the needs of the education sector affects the viability of private sector publishing and makes it impossible for the private publishing sector to prosper.

In order to develop strategies to respond to the need for instructional materials, policy-makers and planners in ministries of education (and in donor agencies) need the following:

- detailed and accurate information regarding existing learning materials and books;

- a clear view of the requirements for instructional materials and supplementary reading materials at various levels of formal and non-formal education programmes over the planning period in the form of a publishing plan;

- a good understanding of the publishing process and an appreciation of the dynamics and economic dependence between general publishing and educational publishing;

- an analysis of the national capacity to meet the requirements for learning materials.

A programme or project design must always be based on a thorough understanding and analysis of the subject, medium- and long-term strategies for change, and the identification of appropriate funding sources and means.

It is vital that project design be based on detailed, up-to-date data on the situation in both the country as a whole and in its regions. Only on the basis of such data can proper needs assessments be made and projects designed. Without detailed information, important policy matters are difficult to address. These might include accurate needs assessment, determining the volume and variety of materials needed per enrolled pupil to achieve a certain standard of educational achievement, the choice and adoption of low-cost strategies for the production of instructional materials, the identification of options for dealing with funding, cost recovery, taxes and duties, and curricula and syllabuses. The importance of exact information, rigorous research, analysis and lively discussion for policy-making and planning cannot be overestimated. There is a need to stress this because detailed information about the status of educational publishing in many developing countries is scarce and difficult to obtain. Information about books and their provision is not yet a part of the information routinely gathered in education sector surveys. Since projects related to book development have been elements in other types of development projects (typically education projects), specific information about books is difficult to find. In most cases, instructional materials have been considered a commodity, the supply of which was subordinated to other project objectives.

To compound the problem, information of this kind is not easily obtained, even when surveys have been made. No existing institution(3) makes a serious effort to document and co-ordinate all the activities and projects in book development, and the information obtained by many surveys remains the exclusive property of those who made them.(4) This is a serious problem.

Finally, when statistical information is available, it is rarely reliable, as shown in a number of reports on the topic. To quote just one:
The lack of official Government commitment to the importance of textbooks is also reflected statistically in data collected by UNESCO. Of the 93 countries responding to UNESCO inquiries on the topic, roughly 60per cent of them (about 57 countries) report that they have a sufficient supply of books; however, several of this group, including Paraguay,Burkina Faso, and Colombia, in fact suffer from a major scarcity of textbooks. (5)This finding not only illustrates that data are not reliable; it also shows that different countries have different opinions about what amount of textbook coverage is sufficient. Moreover, the numbers given above usually only refer to delivery of textbooks to warehouses, not to what is actually available in schoolhouses in dense urban periphery neighbourhoods orremote rural villages. According to these same figures, twelve countries report that less than 30 per cent of their schools are supplied withtextbooks. In addition, there is extensive evidence that the data regarding textbook use supplied by these and by many other countries are unreliable.

Data from other sources, such as SECAB, are hardly more reliable, since ultimately, they came from the same informants who supplied UNESCO with their education statistics: the Ministries of Education. SECAB reports that textbook coverage in Latin America runs an average of 32 per cent for countries such as Chile, Colombia, Bolivia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, and Venezuela. About 76 per cent of primary school students (to grade 3) have one primary or language/art book; about 30 per cent have a mathbook; and less than 10 per cent have a third book. For grades 4 and 5 these figures drop by 20 per cent.(6) Direct observations by the author in countries such as Brazil, Mexico, Paraguay, Uruguay, and Venezuela confirm these low levels of textbook provision. Non-systematic information gathered in connection with various World Bank projects in countries like Colombia, Ecuador, and Guatemala present an even bleaker picture. Whatever the inconsistencies in details, it is evident from the overall picture that the situation is extremely grave.(7)

This is one of the first problems to be addressed regarding the provision of good-quality learning materials, both for schools and for non-formal education programmes.

The book sector study approach was developed by recognizing that there is a lack of information on school conditions relating to book provision and there is insufficient understanding of the complexity of book provision and of the sources of miscalculations in project development. A complete book sector study is the collection, computation and analysis of economic, social, cultural, statistical and other data regarding the writing, publishing, printing, distribution and utilization of books and other printed materials - often with a focus on educational publishing for all levels of schooling.

Ideally, a book sector study would be undertaken in every country in order to draw up a map of the state of the world's books. Full-scale book sector studies are demanding and, to be useful, need to be updated regularly. Book sector studies are probably too costly and too time-consuming, unless they are undertaken as a part of project preparation and feasibility studies.

The establishment of a system for recurrent information gathering is essential for a successful programme for book provision. The approach has therefore been adapted and the terminology changed so that reference is now made to book sector surveys.

Situation analyses based on surveys would place countries within different levels of book development and correspond to the different project initiatives needed to bring about change. As far as book provision is concerned, the stages of development can be described as follows:

Stage 1: countries where professional skills and facilities for publishing and printing provide good-quality learning materials at a level to ensure appropriate educational content, presentation, production, distribution and availability, and where general publishing provides a wide range of affordable books and other printed materials;

Stage 2: countries where professional skills and facilities for publishing and printing produce good-quality learning materials but where book provision for schools is unsatisfactory;

Stage 3: countries where professional skills and facilities for publishing and printing are available but where they are not used for the production of learning materials of reasonable quality with adequate provision for schools and non-formal education programmes;

Stage 4: countries where the professional skills and the facilities necessary for publishing and printing are not available and the provision of learning materials does not meet demand;

Stage 5: very small countries (or language groups) where the minimum economic basis for a publishing enterprise is lacking;

Stage 6: emergency situations caused by natural and human disasters, wars or radical economic or political changes. Where in this range would you place your country? The questionnaire which follows will help to answer this question.

Questionnaire

The following questions enable a map for book provision to be made for the educational planner. They also illustrate how the book sector can be described.

A prior knowledge of the production and distribution of books and other printed learning materials is not necessary to answer the questions. The questions are designed to instruct. It is not expected that all the questions can be answered at once.

The purpose of this checklist is threefold:

1.to gather the relevant information;

2.to establish a common conceptual framework for the provision of learning materials to facilitate communication in this area;

3. to enable a preliminary situation analysis to be made as a starting point for project identification.

It will take time to answer all the questions listed here. But doing so will give an understanding of the book sector and help in the analysis, identification and description of book production.

The questionnaire helps to organize information related to book provision and facilitates the identification of the resources needed to improve the system. It is important to answer these questions and to know where to go and whom to contact to obtain reliable and relevant information.

Some of the questions may be answered differently for different population groups and for rural and urban areas.

When the questionnaire has been completed, a brief description of the situation of the country in book development and provision should be prepared. It may be necessary to look again at the different stages of book development outlined earlier in this chapter.

It is important that the information reflects actual conditions and not just government policies. In this respect, 'no information available' can be a more significant answer to a question than unreliable data.

In order to be objective, it is important to regard answers to these questions not as official but as confidential, and as a personal working and training document that provides a basis for project identification and briefing.

N.B. The information gathered from this questionnaire should not be confused with the findings of a systematic and thorough book sector survey.

Book awareness

1 Are books and other printed materials a normal part of the household environment in your country? List the kinds of books.

2 At what age are children first exposed to books and other printed materials? Where does this first exposure to books and printed materials usually take place - in the home, in the schools or elsewhere?

3 Are children taught how to take care of books and to do minor repair work on them?

4 What is the status of books in general among your people?

General publishing

5 What priority is given to books in national policies?

6 Does the government in your country have a book policy? What institution is responsible for the implementation of the book policy? When was the policy formulated? What are the main elements? Does the policy provide for funding?

7 Is there a thriving general publishing sector in your country?

8 How is publishing recognized as an industry? List incentives such as tax concessions to authors and publishers, access to soft loans and foreign exchange for the import of books, paper and printing machinery, subsidized freight rates for printed materials, government-funded arts councils and training programmes.

9 How many daily newspapers are published in your country? In how many languages? What is the total circulation of these newspapers per 1,000 inhabitants?

10 What is the consumption of printing and writing paper (excluding newsprint) per inhabitant?

11 What kinds of access to books and other printed materials exist in your country - bookshops, libraries, schools, other?

12 How many bookshops are there in the country? How many libraries? Outside urban centres, how far must people travel to the nearest library, bookshop or other point of supply of books?

13 Is there any institution or organization which systematically collects data about the book sector in your country?

14 What is the average annual output of books in your country? (Breakdown: total number of titles, including reprints and new editions, number of titles produced by government or semi-government sector, and the number of titles produced by private sector publishing.)

15 What is the annual turnover of the book trade in your country and how much of it is shared by the private sector? What percentage of this turnover is accounted for by imported books, indigenous school books and other indigenous publishing?

16 Is the paper most commonly used for printing locally produced or imported? Is locally manufactured paper easily obtainable and the supply reliable? How does it compare in terms of price and quality with imported paper? What kind of import taxes and duties are levied on imported paper?

17 How many publishing houses exist in your country? How many printing companies are there? Provision of learning materials

18 How is the provision of learning materials for schools and non-formal education programmes funded in your country? Are textbooks purchased on the market (national or international) or developed specifically?

19 Does the government in your country have a policy for the provision of learning materials? When was the policy formulated? What are the main elements? Does the policy stipulate funding sources?

20 Does the Ministry of Education have a list of textbooks that pupils and teachers must use for each grade and subject? Does it have a list of other basic supplies which should be provided for each school?

21 Does the present arrangement for the provision of learning materials distinguish between industrial matters (such as publishing capacity and sustainability) and educational matters (curriculum concerns and availability)?

22 What mechanisms are in place to ensure that curriculum reform and changes are adequately reflected in the learning materials which are available in the classroom?

23 Who are the professionals involved in monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of learning materials?

24 How often is the curriculum changed? Are curriculum materials revised to reflect these changes? Are teachers trained in the use of new curriculum materials? Are separate, supplementary materials produced and made available to all teachers?

25 What considerations of suitability (relevance of the content, languages used, special materials for special target groups, readability and educational approach) influence the content and presentation of learning materials?

26 Do the users (teachers, pupils and parents) have any influence on what learning materials are purchased by their school?

Cost-efficiency, production and procurement

27 Is there an annual budget for the production/procurement of learning materials? What is it?

28 How much can parents reasonably afford to pay for their children's learning materials? How much are they willing to pay?

29 Are there guidelines, such as a national book policy, for the involvement of the private sector in the development, production and distribution of learning materials?

30 Are curriculum materials generally provided by the public or the private sector, or by a combination of the two? Describe the system.

31 Is the indigenous publishing capacity fully utilized in relation to the cost-effective production of learning materials?

32 Are tenders requested for curriculum materials? If yes, how?

33 Is procurement characterized by international bidding, local competitive bidding, direct competitive bidding (for example, bookseller to school) or state monopoly?

34 Is your country a signatory to the Florence Agreement and its Protocol, the International Copyright Convention, or any other international legal instrument that applies to book development?

Professional competence (training)

35 What training facilities are available locally and/or regionally for curriculum developers, authors, editors, teachers, librarians, illustrators and book designers, layouters, proofreaders, printers, publishing managers, accountants, distributors and booksellers?

36 Is there a national plan for the development and retention of the necessary professional skilled personnel in publishing and printing to respond to the demand for the sustainable provision of quality learning materials?

37 What professional and specialist bodies and organizations exist in your country to support book development? List them.

Availability

38 Are unannounced surveys regularly undertaken to determine the availability of learning materials in the classrooms (on a school-by-school and subject-by-subject basis)?

39 Is the availability of textbooks and other instructional materials the same throughout the country or are there significant variations?

Conclusions

40 How would you characterize the present situation with regard to the provision of books for schools and non-formal education programmes?

41 To what extent is the provision of learning materials characterized by dependence on external funding and expertise (extreme dependence, moderate dependence, negligible dependence)?

42 Aside from financial constraints, what do you consider to be the major obstacles to the development of a sustainable system for the provision of learning materials?

43 What subsidies would you consider appropriate on a long-term basis to strengthen the national capacity to provide a sufficiently wide range of quality learning materials to support educational achievement in schools and non-formal educational programmes?


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