Watchdog warns that school books are too expensive, hard to reuse

The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) is warning major textbook publishers that secondary-school materials are too expensive and almost impossible to reuse. The watchdog is also urging the publishers to stop forcing schools to buy print and digital versions of textbooks together.

Publishers ThiemeMeulenhoff, Malmberg, and Noordhoff have a hold on most of the schoolbook market. Each year, secondary schools reportedly spend about 280 million euros on digital and paper schoolbooks.

“Schools almost never switch teaching methods when the price rises,” Martijn Snoep, chairman of the ACM board, told NOS. “This is a market that is not working well: over the past seven years, prices have risen faster than those of comparable products.” Additionally, according to the ACM, there is a mismatch between what the publishers offer and what the schools actually need.

The ACM also made a note of the so-called “socially undesirable sales strategies” used by other major publishers. “Mandatory packages of digital and paper products are still often offered, and the supply of reusable textbooks has fallen to nearly zero in recent years.”

Earlier this year, the association of educational publishers, MEVW, recommended that its members stop making schools purchase digital products together with the physical schoolboks. According to NOS, the practice is called tying.

Schools can help in making the market different, said Snoep. “When they buy, they can pay closer attention to the link between price and quality of learning materials,” the chairman said. “That can include choices for durable, reusable materials and a decision on whether students really need textbooks delivered to their homes.”

“Pressure on publishers starts with schools’ willingness to switch to other learning materials,” ACM added. “Money schools save on learning materials can then be used in other ways for high-quality education.”