“What got me going was that parents have been phoning me about their children who are not going to make it to the first day of school because they have been unable to buy books,” says Thorhallur Heimsson, the priest of Hafnarfjordur Church.
Visir.is reports that he wrote on his blog that he had been receiving an unusual number of phone calls from worried parents unable to prepare their children for the new autumn term at school because of a lack of money to buy textbooks, stationery and registration fees. Heimsson said the problem particularly applies to students in post-compulsory education.
Asked whether he sees a danger of students leaving their studies due to poverty, Heimsson said:
“I ask: if you couldn’t start school on Monday because you had no books, what would you do?”
Heimsson says he has heard from people feeling absolutely helpless about the new school year already.
He says many parents have more than one child to support who need feeding and clothing at a time when prices are increasing fast.
The priest reminds people that they can look for help from the church charity and the local government’s community support for help. He said the cost of studying has gone up considerably and real wages have decreased and said the Ministry for Education should do something.
“I don’t know what needs to be done, but I know something has to be done.”
welcome to a pitiful Eastern Europe/Mediterranean-like situation ^^
Imo, it’s a trivial issues, there are plenty of ways to solve that. [this useless school system had to fight with it nearly everyday here]
This is sad , and nothing serious is being done… o yeah finishing the Opera house,
Iceland should follow the UK and stop charging sales tax on books. Taxing knowledge is regressive.
Wellcome to reallity!!!!
Aggi said it all. WHY are we finishing off the b….opera house. Time to get priorities right. Education matters most.
Stop to have kids or just have one. Wellcome to the really life!!!
When I was a kid – we got our text books for free every year.
At university – same. Just went to library and got all you need.
But it was Soviet Union. Totalitarian education system, you know :-)
Blame book publishers who do minor edits to books in order to bump editions and discourage students from buying used books.
Also, the school system should be blamed too – it is very likely that they are in agreement with publishers and get their cut from that deal too.
You may want to check the pirate bay – maybe your book is already there available for free. After all, publishers deserve no respect. Why? See this article in New York Times called “First It Was Song Downloads. Now It’s Organic Chemistry”.
you’re right, Alexander. I should have written “Eastern Europe (some countries after ’91)” instead.
Jim, are you serious ?! Iceland has its max VAT on books ???? Come on, neither us….