JAMAICA Observer online readers have weighed in on a report of a collusion between teachers and players in the book retail industry to pad booklists. According to the Sunday Observer probe, teachers are including unnecessary items on the booklists, so stores can make additional sales, and the teachers in return get a percentage of the proceeds. Here are some edited comments:

nickmini

What about the racket inside the Ministry of Education, where only books of “friend and company” get on the approved booklist no matter how unsuitable (note that some are suitable), while superior books are left off the list because those authors and publishers don’t have any links at the ministry? And, of course, there are favours from friend and company. CLEAN UP YOUR OWN HOUSE FIRST, MISTER MINISTER!

CHUCK EMANUEL the original

@nickmini: Racket inside the Ministry of Education? Whom did you report this to based on your investigation? We need evidence, not just sound-bite assertions.

Mabted

Welcome to the eat-a-food mentality…SMH!

Gene

So, is MOCA onto this one? Seems like ‘thinking out of the box’ borders on corrupt practices! The teachers could be thinking out of the box to get money to help run their schools.

mccormacklindel

This country badly needs a moral compass. Mahatma Gandhi identified seven deadly sins that, if left unchecked, could destroy an individual reputation through greed and corruption. And here are two: commerce without ethics, and knowledge without character. And sad to say, this practice is not confined to Jamaica, and it is to be found in institutions of higher learning as well. I heard some time ago, professors pushing books for their friends on students.

Mark Pike

We need to move faster in our delivery of content in digital form so that all recommended text can be regulated, and cost can be better for the student. Tablets are becoming cheaper, and students growing in natural aptitude for the technology.

Matlock2

I find this to be rather interesting, and have been hearing about this a long time now. My suggestion is this, why doesn’t the Government ? sign contracts with a few of these printers to supply them with textbooks and then sell them to the parents and use the money to offset some of the cost to the Government. In other words, since the Government is spending $1 billion, this would help them reduce that amount and allow them to focus on other issues facing the schools and teachers… just saying.

sassy

What the ministry should do is send the official booklists to all the book stores and have them post the lists so the parents and students can refer to them. Some form of authenticity, which is difficult to forge, should be affixed to the list by the ministry. If any of the lists posted in the bookstores is forged, then the owner of the bookstore would be liable and would be charged with a crime.

Michael Smythe

Jamaicans have difficulty thinking in the abstract. Thus, concepts like morality, ethics, principles, rules, laws, and systems escape most of us.

Jdonman1

Well-skilled and knowledgable teachers DON’T need to teach from textbooks! Students DON’T need textbooks to be competent learners! Just follow the curriculum expectation!

mustafango

The real culprits are the so-called textbook publishers who are really importers with connections to government policymakers.

Guest

Good job, Observer.

chin lee

Speechless.

Mark Trought

Why does it take so long to implement solutions that will benefit the masses. If the government believed in OPPORTUNITY OF THE MAJORITY, we would have a better country.

err

gag Just have ONE booklist for ALL schools. Case closed.

Sentiments

If true, this is not surprising. Some teachers are rogues.

TUN_IT_UP

It’s called “kickback” and it’s a damn shame that teachers, who are supposed to be teaching our children values and attitudes, are indulging in this corruption! Unbelievable!