THE Ministry of Education says it is providing most of the textbooks required at primary schools, and reiterates its call for parents to desist from purchasing unnecessary books.

“We provide at least 98 per cent of the books at no cost to students at grades one to three, so our guideline to parents is, if you are going to purchase additional materials, you should only be purchasing one supplementary reader at grades one to three,” Chief Education Officer Dr Grace McLean said.

She was delivering the keynote address at the weekly meeting of the Rotary Club of St Andrew North on July 21.

Dr McLean said the ministry’s expenditure for school textbooks is almost $1 billion, and all the books required for the preparation of students for the Grade Six Achievement Test (GSAT) are provided to students at no cost, and “parents only need to buy the workbook, which should not cost them more than $5,000 at each grade”.

While noting that all, except one of the books for secondary school from grades seven to nine, are at no cost to parents, Dr McLean said students can continue to access the educational resources at the Jamaica Library Service, which has outlets at the community level. That, she stressed, is one way of reducing the cost parents pay for books.

“We provide all the books at the secondary level, except the literature books. Again, at this level parents should not be spending more than $12,000 on the books that would be required to supplement what the ministry provides,” she said.

“We are very satisfied that we have adequate materials within the school system, and within our public libraries that can serve our students.”