The start of the next school year could prove quite difficult, according to importers. Members of the Booksellers and Stationery Owners Association (BSOA) held a press conference last week to share their anxiety about the possible delay in the arrival of textbooks. Many secondary teachers may well have to start their job without any support before books become available.

In fact, the delay appears to be linked to the controversy on French books that led Linley Couronne to address the Independent Commission against Corruption (Icac) recently. The ministry of Education had decided to ?review the process of standardization of textbooks for 2008-2009 so that the total cost of books does not weigh heavy on parents at the beginning of the year, while complying with pedagogical requirements for curriculum outcomes? ? as pointed out by minister Gokhool in Parliament last week. Hence, guidelines were given to subject panels for the textbook lists to be divided into a restricted number of recommended textbooks and a list of reference books.

<I>The association spoke of another scandal connected with the Pure Mathematics for A-Level textbook by Mauritian author, Rashid Raman which was moved into the reference list and recommended two other books edited by Cambridge.

The president of the BSOA and director of Editions le Printemps, Ahmad Suliman, said that this panel ?was up more than fifteen years ago and is composed of a panel of pedagogues and professionals of the education sector who are responsible for recommending textbooks for the secondary school programme every two years. Recommendations of the committee have always been automatically approved by the ministry before being made public?. This was true until this year.

This year, the French panel, for instance, submitted in August its two lists, which were made public in September. While this date of issue was already late compared to previous years, the problem became even more serious when the controversy occurred concerning textbooks written by James Burty David. This is why there is little chance that books arrive on time for the beginning of next year, as ?orders placed by importers and resellers have faced a delay of approximately two months?.

But, according to the president of the association, the problem is not only about French textbooks. The BSOA spoke of another ?scandal?, connected with the Pure Mathematics for A-level textbook by Mauritian author, Rashid Raman. While this book has been used in most schools since 2002, the ministry moved this book into the reference list and recommended two other books edited by Cambridge, according to the association. ?Not only does the ministry deny the competences of a Mauritian educator for foreign authors but it also forces parents to buy two mathematics books for Rs 1,600 while the one by Rashid Raman cost only Rs 360?, said Ahmad Suliman.

In view of the number of protests that cropped up after the ministry?s decision to propose two different lists, the minister announced that his ministry ?gave a measure of flexibility to this year?s exercise, by accepting that a book in the reference list could be substituted to a book in the recommended list as long as the number of books prescribed per subject does not exceed two?.

However, it might be too late for this year?s resumption of studies to take place in the best possible conditions. The various changes brought by the ministry have led to a great loss of time for teachers and heads to prepare the following year. Some schools ? some 25 out of 150 ? have not even submitted the list of books recommended by their teachers, according to the association. Parents and teachers may well face a real headache in January.