CHENNAI: The school education department, through a government order, has increased the prices of stateboard textbooks by Rs 30 to Rs 90 from this academic year.
The maximum price increase is Rs 40 for books till class 4, Rs 50 from class 5-7, Rs 70 for class 8, Rs 80 for class 9, 10 and 12 and Rs 90 for class 11. Class 11 botany book which was Rs 190, now costs Rs 280. The prices of several books including physics, chemistry, zoology in class 11 have gone up by Rs 80.
As far as minority language books are concerned, the prices have gone up by a maximum of Rs 50. The prices of 213 books, including 83 minority language books, have gone up from 30% to 50%.
While this attracted criticism from the opposition AIADMK and private school associations, the government defended the increase.
School Education Minister Anbil Mahesh Poyyamozhi, in a statement on Wednesday, clarified the increase was not to make profit, but to manage the increase in the cost. The minister said hiking the prices of the textbooks once in three years is a routine, considering the increase in the prices of paper, printing cost and wrapper costs.
The minister said during the previous AIADMK regime, the prices of textbooks were hiked by 370% during 2015-16 and 466% in 2018-19. Particularly, the geography book for the Plus One Course was hiked by 466%, the commerce textbook by 325% and the science textbook by 300%. The prices of textbooks were hiked in 2013-14 as well.
The minister said the cost of printing paper has gone up by 63% since 2018 while the paper board used for making the wrapper has gone up by 33%. Besides, printing cost has increased by 21%.
The minister also said textbooks are being supplied free of cost to students from poor economic backgrounds, studying in government and government-aided schools.
AIADMK general secretary Edappadi K Palaniswami, in a statement, had charged that the prices of textbooks for classes 1 to 10 have been hiked by around 40% and this would affect the parents very much. He urged the government to withdraw the hike immediately
Members of The Federation of Private School Associations (FePSA) urged the Minister for Education to revoke the increase. In a statement, FePSA president Arumugam said that while the government distributed textbooks free of cost to students in government and aided schools, private school students have to purchase them. Though the costs of printing have increased, the 40% hike is abnormal, he said.