Big textbook publishers are shunning the new national education curriculum, while a small player who dived into the market has found few buyers amid controversy over the subject.
Some Hong Kong primary schools will start teaching national education - a subject the government says will engender national pride but which critics deride as brainwashing - when the new school year begins in September. The first lot of secondary schools start it next year.
'Normally, we would need two years [of preparation time]. But the subject was decided in April and the introduction is in September,' said Ben Mak, deputy regional director of Oxford University Press (China).
Even the likely demand for when the subject becomes compulsory at primary level in 2015 and in secondary schools in 2016 has not tempted publishers.
'The curriculum is so broad,' Mak said, adding that it was unclear how much class time would be devoted to national education, making it hard to devise materials.
Shek Kwok-kei of Pilot Publishing said his company had spent the past year putting together a set of national education textbooks for secondary schools, but schools felt it was too early to buy them. 'I want to be a pioneer but it seems schools don't know how the game will be played,' he said, adding that to his understanding, none of the mainstream publishers had plans to enter the market yet.