No textbooks for international students; new school year begins this month
View(s):A shortage of textbooks in the market is leaving international school students in the lurch as the new school year begins. This will be the second time the new school year begins online for these students.
With the beginning of the school year and the progression of students into their new grades, parents complained that textbooks required for their children are not to be found in the market.
“My son is starting his Ordinary Level studies this year but we have not been able to find quite a few of his required textbooks yet,” said one parent of an international school student.
“The books are his core texts for his next two years of study. Online education is not successful, and depending on online classes without a textbook to refer to will be quite impractical for exam preparation,” she said.
While many imports were banned over the course of the pandemic, books, though not necessarily considered essential items, fell into a gray area of products that were still allowed into the country.
“However, pandemic related delays severely affected our supply chains,” said Dinusha Abeywirckrama, President of the Ceylon Booksellers, Importers and Exporters Association.
“Book imports from India would first travel from Delhi to Chennai and then come down to Sri Lanka. However, these had been completely cut off as the COVID-19 situation in India exacerbated over the last year. While the situation was improving, the backlog had been immense.”
“Another issue was the fact that most offices are closed and the staff is working from home, so when we contact our suppliers in countries like the UK it takes a long period of time to get through, if at all,” she said.
However, even where the chains of supply were clear, relationships between suppliers abroad and bookshops here were strained. Many bookstores told the Sunday Times that the system as it stood consisted of credit based stock purchases.
Credit periods for stocks imported would vary between 30-90 days based on the relevant contracts that the bookshops had with their suppliers. However, with the stalls in the local banking system a backlog of unpaid invoices had occurred.
Another official of the Association noted that suppliers were also reluctant to sell on credit because of the Sri Lankan Government’s credit rating and rumors that letters of credit are not being honoured since most purchasing systems are now automated, and these systems block orders coming from buyers with a backlog of unpaid invoices.
“Most vendors are asking for full payments in advance, but this is virtually impossible, as sales are significantly down,” one bookseller said.
Sellers also found themselves making losses due to the fluctuating exchange rates.
“We sold the books at the prices set for the old exchange rate but when it was time to pay our suppliers we had to pay at the new exchange rates which were so much higher,” the vendor said.
The Association official estimated that booksellers most likely experienced 40-50% losses in revenue in September alone. Sellers usually make high revenues between July and August every year for the international school season and more during the book fair season in September. No plans were made for the book fair this year and so no special orders had been placed with their suppliers. But many sellers said even if the book fair was held, they would have expected significantly less business since extreme price increases were inevitable.
“Especially international school textbooks which were heavily priced even before this situation will become unaffordable,” he added.
The official noted that another issue they foresaw was the December season demand for Government textbooks.
“These books are currently only available at Isurupaya. Since the situation is unpredictable it will be advisable for the Government to begin planning for an online registration or delivery system for those books,” he said.
While leftovers from previous stocks are still available, the shops are able to meet some of the demand for certain books. Sarasavi Bookshops Managing Director Chandu Haputhanthri said stocks leftover from previous imports will only last for about two to three more months, at most. (Tharushi Weerasinghe)