Bookbuyer's
Bookend
What do these people think they are playing at? Without so much as a by-your-leave the Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy, and the Society of County Treasurers, have suddenly stopped supplying figures on local authority book expenditure in schools. Instead, they have now decided to lump together all expenditure under the heading 'Learning Resource Materials' without giving any indication as to what sums have been spent on books, on equipment, or on classroom and stationery materials.
It would perhaps be exaggerating to say that they have done this to spare tight-fisted local authorities from the annual ignominy of a roasting from Bookbuyer. But it is a sinister development all the same. For several years publishers (through the Educational Publishers Council) and educationalists (through the Association of Education Committees) have been lobbying for greater provision of books in schools. When expenditure statistics have appeared each year (often two years after the event) the EPC has steadfastly published commentaries on the overall national figures, and compared the performances of local authorities against expenditure figures thought to be necessary by the AEC. Whilst some authorities like Montgomery have had a very impressive record indeed, a great many have fallen below what the AEC regards as "reasonable."
Quoting some of these statistics last September, Bookend remarked on the fact that in 1971-72 the average 'reasonable allowance' for primary school books was put at £1.38 per child, and that places like Bradford, Barnsley, Coventry, Hastings, Ipswich, Sunderland and Swansea fell woefully below the mark. So too, in secondary expenditure, did Cornwall, Rotherham and Salford. In fact, of the 162 LEAs in England and Wales (Scotland never bothered to make anything public) those considered to be providing "less than reasonable" allowances for primary schools totalled 68; for secondary schools, it was 92. (It is perhaps fair to mention that the then president of the National Union of Teachers regarded these recommended standards as far too low anyway.)
It may just be that some authorities like Swansea and Rotherham improved last year. It could be that following local government reorganisation, the newly constituted authorities will this year adopt the standards of their better predecessors and not their worst. The sad fact is that we may never know. The local authorities and their treasurers probably do not want us to know. The Department of Education and Science whose principal interest is in national rather than local statistics, do not appear to care whether we know or ,not. Gentlemen of the back benches: It's Your Line.
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