Write ‘em good, sell ‘em cheap; it’s the perfect textbook recipe for cash-strapped schools.
Teachers are buying up Letts Educational key stage 3 books covering English, maths and science, currently costing only pound;3.
Letts spokesperson, Marcia Baldry, says 1,134 departments have ordered the books since the price dropped from the regular pound;7.
Ms Baldry referred to last month’s Office for Standards in Education review of secondary schools, which bemoaned the need for pupils to share textbooks.
“Letts surveyed 900 headteachers about how they could best be helped,” she said. “The word came back: We’re strapped for cash - money for hi-tech resources is no problem but when we want books the funds aren’t there.”
The Letts move is enthusiastically supported by teachers such as Richard Clay, head of science at Lawnswood School in Leeds, who bought 900 copies of the science book so that every key stage 3 pupil could +keep a book at home for homework.
“It’s a watershed,” he said. “We’ve not been able to afford a book for every pupil since the early 1980s.”
And Dr Keith Eames, head of maths at Furtherwick Park school in Canvey Island, Essex, bought 700 maths books.
“In the light of the measly pockets of money for textbooks it’s been a godsend,” he said.
