The Ministry of Education and Youth has allotted more than $890 million for the purchase of academic textbooks for use in the upcoming academic year.

The ministry’s chief executive officer, Adelle Brown, said $315.7 million would be used to buy primary level books while $576 million would buy books for secondary schools.

Parents would, therefore, not need to buy those books that the ministry would provide free of cost, she said.

“The ministry provides books mainly for the core subjects so we always provide the mathematics and the reading books. A parent, for instance, with a child at the primary level does not need to buy these books,” Brown said.

She said that the ministry had also absorbed, since the 2005/2006 academic year, all costs associated with the provision of books to students at the high school level so that “no fees are to be charged to students for participating in the national textbook rental scheme”.

Previously, students had to pay $1,000 for the books they received under the scheme.

The subject areas for which the ministry will provide 100 per cent of the books at the secondary level, include English Language, Mathematics, Social Studies, Integrated Science, Chemistry, Biology, Spanish, French, Information Technology, Principles of Accounts and Business, Office Procedures, Geography, and History.

She noted that the high cost of textbooks used in the technical and vocational subject areas would see the ministry offering only a portion of those books for rental to students in the upcoming academic year.

“It is not because we do not think that these subjects are important but the fact is that the texts for tech-voc subjects, are the most expensive so we will only be able to supply 25 per cent of some of these books,” she said.

The subjects for which books will be provided in that area are Agricultural Science, Religious Education, Drama, Home Economics, Visual Arts, Plumbing, Carpentry, Building Technology, Welding, Motor Mechanics, Clothing and Textiles and Metal Works.

Exceptions will be made for grade seven students, who will be provided with all the books in Agricultural Science, Home Economics, Visual Arts and Religious Education.

Brown has, in the interim, encouraged teachers to prescribe books provided by the ministry.

“It does not mean that another book should not be used, but the particular chapter that is needed should be photocopied and distributed to the students instead of asking students to purchase that book as it is very burdensome on the parents,” she said.