As the new academic year begins, the Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) is reporting that parents should not see a marked increase in the prices of textbooks for primary and secondary schools.

"Overall we did not see a significant increase in the prices compared to last year," explained Director of Research at the CAC, Hugh Taylor.

"We looked at it in bands and generally we found that a vast majority of the books fell in the below 10 per cent increase band," he said while sharing the findings of the CAC's 2007 School Textbook Survey, which aims to capture and publish the prices of selected primary and secondary school books available in bookstores across the island.

"This year in particular we took the time to have background discussion with the Book Association of Jamaica so that we have a proper and full understanding of the factors, which influence the pricing and availability of books on the market," he said.

"We found that the industry is not merely a distributive network for books, it is in fact an industry by itself which also includes the printing, binding, designing and publishing of books," Mr. Taylor noted, adding that these will invariably affect the pricing of books.

The total number of texts surveyed amounted to 120, of which 74 per cent were secondary level texts and 26 per cent were primary level texts.