Supplies of school textbooks

Supplies of school textbooks

From Kompas

As a mother who has several school-aged children, I fully
support the complaint made by a headmaster in a school in
Cikarang, Bekasi about the quality of school textbooks.

Students are required to buy a new set of books each year.
What makes it worse is that these books are not available in
bookstores as they are supplied only by the schools concerned.

In previous years, a student could pass on his or her school
textbooks to his or her younger brother or sister. Today, this is
impossible because the content of one particular school textbook
used in a certain year will be different from the one used in the
following year.

It is tragic that as life is getting increasingly more
difficult for many people that those in the educational field are
freely doing business with school textbooks. How can people who
barely earn enough to keep body and soul together afford to buy
so many new school textbooks each year? How can the young gain
intelligence if they cannot afford to buy books?

In the past, used books could be donated to the poor. Today,
they are simply sold to scavengers.

In this context, the education minister must take action
against the people at the schools who are making a lot of money
out of school textbooks. If necessary, the minister must not
allow schools to sell them.

In addition, the minister must also scrap the "special
procedure" of accepting students, from the junior high school
level to university level, because the victims will be smart
children from poor families.

WATI AISAH
Depok, West Java