What's the harm of too many textbooks at present?

Recently, the National Development and Reform Commission, the General Administration of Press and Publication and the Ministry of Education jointly issued the Notice on Strengthening the Price Supervision of Teaching Aids in Primary and Secondary Schools. Starting from the fall semester of 20 12, the main teaching AIDS used by primary and secondary school students will be subject to government-guided price management, which will greatly reduce the price standard and reduce the financial burden of students' teaching AIDS. In this regard, the reporter interviewed the relevant person in charge of the National Development and Reform Commission.

Reporter: Why should we strengthen the price supervision of teaching AIDS in primary and secondary schools?

Person in charge: the price of teaching AIDS in primary and secondary schools is related to the vital interests of primary and secondary school students in Guanzhong. In recent years, the society has strongly reflected the problems of "too much" and "too much" of all kinds of study counseling and exam counseling materials used by primary and secondary school students, as well as the "too expensive" problem caused by high pricing and large kickbacks. One of the reasons for the above problems is the lack of necessary guidance and constraints on the pricing behavior of operators. Because students are often in a passive position when they actually choose teaching AIDS, this provides conditions for some publishers and middlemen to agree on high prices and high rebates, making high prices the main marketing means of some dealers. According to statistics, at present, the average printing unit price of supplementary teaching materials is above 1.5 yuan, which is several times the price of teaching materials subject to government pricing management. In the high-priced textbooks, the intermediate links give a lot of discounts and kickbacks, and all the expenses are ultimately borne by the students. Driven by interests, some publishing houses and publishers who do not have the ability to compile supplementary teaching materials have also set foot in the supplementary teaching materials market. The content and printing quality of some teaching AIDS in the market are low, which seriously affects the healthy growth of students.

In view of this, in order to standardize the market price behavior of teaching AIDS, guide publishing units to set reasonable prices, effectively reduce the price of teaching AIDS, reduce the economic burden of students, and promote the healthy and orderly development of the press and publishing industry and education, the three departments jointly issued policies and measures to strengthen the price supervision of teaching AIDS in primary and secondary schools. It should be noted that the price supervision measures introduced this time are also carried out in accordance with the unified requirements of the state for the comprehensive management of the teaching auxiliary market, and are an important part of the comprehensive management of the whole market.

Reporter: Please tell us what the comprehensive management of the teaching aid materials market includes?

Person in charge: In order to effectively solve the problem of "too many", "too many" and "expensive" textbooks, according to the relevant requirements of the State Council and the unified deployment of the national work to control unreasonable fees for education, all relevant departments in the State Council should take a multi-pronged approach in textbook compilation, publication, distribution and selection, and treat both the symptoms and root causes. The main measures include:

First, strengthen the publishing qualification and printing quality management of teaching AIDS, and ensure good market access. The press and publication administration will take the lead to further tighten the relevant market access qualifications; Strengthen the supervision and inspection of the quality of teaching AIDS and the illegal publication in the market.

The second is to strengthen the management of the selection and compilation of teaching materials to ensure good content and use. The education department will take the lead in establishing a textbook quality announcement system, and through collective evaluation, uniformly select textbooks with good quality and suitable for teaching requirements for students to choose; Strictly regulate the writing behavior of teaching AIDS. In this regard, a few days ago, the Ministry of Education, the General Administration of Press and Publication, the National Development and Reform Commission, and the the State Council State Council Office for Rectification have issued the Notice on Strengthening the Management of the Use of Auxiliary Materials in Primary and Secondary Schools.

The third is to strengthen the price management of teaching AIDS and control prices. Led by the competent price department, according to the average cost and reasonable profit of publication and distribution, the teaching and auxiliary materials published by merit-based evaluation will be formulated, which will greatly reduce the unreasonable discount and rebate space and reduce the economic burden of students. In addition, relevant departments should further strengthen the governance of corruption in the industry and seriously investigate and deal with illegal acts such as accepting kickbacks in violation of regulations.

Reporter: What are the main contents of strengthening the price supervision of teaching AIDS in primary and secondary schools?

Person in charge: The notice mainly includes three aspects:

First, the teaching AIDS are subject to government guidance prices. Starting from the fall semester of 20 12, the publishing unit shall set the retail price according to the requirements of not higher than the national benchmark price of text printing and cover; The teaching materials other than the provincial evaluation announcement are still independently priced by the publishing unit. Limit the publishing fee standard of supplementary teaching materials published by provinces to no more than 35%, and reduce the space for discounts and kickbacks in intermediate links.

The second is to strengthen the management of teaching aid price publicity. All provinces are required to announce the price of teaching materials audited by the competent price department and the press and publication department at the same time as issuing the announcement of merit-based evaluation. The publishing unit shall publish the price of teaching materials published by the unit online and accept social supervision.

The third is to strengthen comprehensive market management. It is required to strengthen the management of the selection of teaching AIDS, establish an announcement system for the selection of teaching AIDS, and adhere to the principle of students' voluntary selection; Strengthen the management of publishing and printing qualification of supplementary teaching materials in primary and secondary schools, and standardize the order of publishing and distribution; Strengthen the inspection of content quality, editing quality and printing quality, and announce the inspection results to the public in a timely manner; Continue to intensify efforts to crack down on infringement, piracy and illegal publication of teaching AIDS; Comprehensively strengthen the supervision of the implementation of the supplementary price policy and publicity system.

Reporter: What effect is expected to be achieved by the price supervision policy for teaching AIDS?

Person in charge: This time, the relevant departments in the State Council have taken comprehensive measures to manage the market of teaching AIDS, with a multi-pronged approach and strong policies. All policies complement each other and will have a positive superposition effect. As long as the supervision is in place, it is expected that the unhealthy phenomena existing in the current teaching aid materials market will be effectively controlled, and the problems strongly reflected by the society will be fundamentally improved, which will not only reduce the economic burden of students, but also promote the healthy development of publishing and education. In terms of price, according to the proposed guiding price level, the price of most teaching AIDS is nearly 40%~50% lower than the current market price, and the economic burden of teaching AIDS caused by the problem of "excessive price" will be significantly reduced.