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| EFA 2000 Assessment > Thematic Studies > | |
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| Textbooks and learning materials 1990-1999: a global survey | |
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The standard of textbook provision deteriorated during
the 1970s and 1980s throughout Africa and much of Latin America
and Asia, and in 1990 was far below the desirable ratio of one
book per pupil. Supplementary reading and other learning materials
were even scarcer, and quality was often poor. During the 1990s
the situation improved in some countries, thanks in large measure
to external funding by international agencies, governments,
and CSOs, but globally textbooks continued in short supply.
Textbooks were particularly scarce in rural areas, and even
where available were not always used effectively. State dominance
in textbook provision proved inefficient and uneconomic. Supply
of learning materials was impeded by lack of funding, conflicting
government priorities, difficulties in distribution, and lack
of trained personnel. The provision of textbooks in many countries
still depended on cyclical infusions of external aid that concentrated
on production of a commodity without building the related infrastructures.
Three significant trends can be detected in textbook
provision during the 1990s: decentralization of selection and
procurement, economic liberalization with a greater role for
the private sector, and increased cost recovery to achieve systemic
sustainability. Funding agencies sought to coordinate their
activities and increasingly recognized the importance of developing
a national publishing industry to produce textbooks that would
be in steady supply and would reflect local conditions, experiences,
and needs. In the latter part of the decade the focus of aid
began to shift from supply-side provision of textbook producers
to targeted subsidies and demand-side funding of users.
A sustainable and competitive system of providing
textbooks and other learning materials requires a publishing
industry that can originate, produce, and deliver the materials
along commercial principles of cost recovery. Inequities will
result, which can be reduced through targeted subsidies and
programs of demand-side support. But textbooks are only part
of the picture. Provision of the wide range of other books needed
to foster and maintain a literate society is also contingent
on the emergence of a viable publishing and bookselling industry.
This goal will be beyond the capacity of many small and poor
countries. Dependence on external assistance will continue,
although it can be reduced through national policies of cost
recovery and increased educational budgets. Electronic options,
in the near- and mid-term, are unaffordable and impracticable
for many regions of the world, where the problem of inequitable
access to appropriate, low cost reading material must still
be addressed
Copyright © Ian Montagnes 1999
31 Baldwin Street, Port Hope,
ON, Canada L1A 1S3
phone 1 905 885 7110
fax 1 905 885 8717
e-mail imont@eagle.ca
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