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Issuing of textbooks list delayed

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Schools and parents may be stuck in limbo as a list of recommended textbooks for this year is put on hold amid a deepening dispute between education chiefs and publishers.

The Education Bureau postponed the release of its annual list, due yesterday, after publishers retracted their book prices the night before in response to a policy U-turn on giving free teaching manuals to schools.

Last night, the bureau imposed a deadline of tomorrow on publishers to unveil their book prices for the coming academic year.

The government was creating a lose-lose situation, an education observer said, with students set to face price increases when publishers lost trust in officials. School principals said the deadlock could affect their operations.

'May is typically the time when teachers decide what textbooks to use for next year, because by June, they will be very busy with exams,' Liu Ah-chuen, chairman of the Subsidised Secondary Schools Council, said. 'The problem now is that the government will not publish its list of approved textbooks.'

A few key players dominate the HK$1.5 billion textbook industry and they increase prices even during bad economic times.

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