THE education ministry has slashed by three-quarters its budget for vocational texts for the next academic year, which is likely to lead to a shortage of such books in secondary schools, according to private sector procurers.

But this will not be the only impact of the budget cut, they say. The placing of orders only last week, two months later than usual, will mean that some books may not be available at the start of the new school year in September.

“It’s clear,” one supplier told the Observer on Friday. “Books are going to be late. Kids will very well go to school in September without books.”

Levon Phillips, director of procurement at the ministry’s Media Services Unit, declined comment on the matter and the unit’s head, assistant chief education officer, Jackie Cousins, promised to respond to written questions “in due course”.

Each year the ministry spends about $540 million procuring textbooks for a book rental scheme in secondary schools. Orders are usually made in April or early May and local agents source the books mostly in Britain for delivery between July and August.

This year, however, it was only last week that the ministry finalised orders and on Friday it confirmed to procurers the 75 per cent reduction in the budget.

Suppliers suggested that problem are likely to flow from the fact that the drastic reduction are not for texts in core subjects like English and math, for which alternative texts can easily be sourced locally.

Instead many are unique, hard-to-find texts used by thousands of students in classes such as:

. drama;

. computer technology;

. religious education;

. visual arts;

. woodwork;

. home economics;

. needlework;

. agricultural science;

. industrial technology;

. electrical installation;

. metal work;

. carpentry; and

. motor mechanics.

“These are children who are out of the field of academics,” claimed one supplier, who asked not to be named. “The ones who most need them (the texts) are kept out of the loop. I cannot imagine how in these days we are not listing computer technology as a core subject.”

It was not immediately clear why this specific area of the education ministry’s budget was cut, if an analysis was done on the potential impact on schools, what system will be used to allocate available text and whether the education ministry had worked out alternative arrangements.

However, the reduction in the allocation for textbooks was likely to be part of the efforts to streamline a $30-billion budget, which accounts for about 10 per cent of the government’s overall spending, and closer to 30 per cent when the cost of debt servicing is taken out.

Each year the education ministry asks secondary schools to formally indicate the textbooks and what amounts they would need in each subject area. The new books are used to replace damaged books under the revolving rental scheme, or supplement existing texts if class size increases or new subjects are added.