Black Immigrant Daily News

The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) has reported the findings of this year’s annual school textbook survey, which was conducted between August 8 and 12.

Speaking at a JIS ‘Think Tank’, on Tuesday, the CAC’s Director of Research, Racquel White, said the findings revealed that there was an average 8.51 per cent increase in textbook prices.

“In the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area, it’s just about seven per cent and among the rural towns it was a little higher, as there was an 11 per cent increase. [The prices for] more than half of the books that we looked at were between one per cent and 10 per cent,” she noted.

White pointed out that the cost for about a quarter of the books increased between 11 per cent and 20 per cent.

“Five Caribbean Advanced Proficiency Examination (CAPE) books increased in the 21 per cent to 30 per cent range and there were three books that increased just above 50 per cent,” she added.

The findings of the report also showed that “just over one-tenth of the books that we looked at, reduced between 0.1 per cent and 10 per cent. The largest reduction was about 21 per cent for one of the CAPE books,” White said.

On average, there was a 36 per cent difference between the highest and lowest price observed for textbooks islandwide, except for literature novels, where the average was 84 per cent. This was due to differences in the cover (hard/soft), publishers, and sources.

Within the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area and among rural towns, however, the average difference was 21 per cent and 33 per cent, respectively, for all textbooks, except for literature novels, where the difference between the highest and lowest price was, on average, 56 per cent and 65 per cent, respectively.

White said the survey, which is usually conducted in July each year, “is to provide consumers, parents, and guardians with very important information on a critical consumer item, and that is textbooks.”

“This year we conducted the survey in the period of August 8 to 12, and this is later than the time in which we usually do the survey; the survey is usually done close to the end of July. But we had consultations with the Book Industry Association of Jamaica (BIAJ), and they advised us that this would be a good time for us to do the survey because, by then, the bookstores would have received most of their new stock,” she pointed out.

White shared that the survey was conducted across three educational levels in all parishes except Hanover, as there were no known bookstores identified.

“Unlike previous years when we targeted the entire population of known bookstores, this year we targetted a sample of bookstores across Kingston and rural parishes,” she explained.

To gather data for the survey, a sample of 49 bookstores or 72 per cent of known outlets were visited, 12 of which were in the Greater Kingston Metropolitan Area. The remaining stores were in rural towns islandwide.

Additionally, the CAC conducted an online survey on three of the major book chains that had an online presence.

The Director of Research said the CAC worked closely with the Ministry of Education and Youth to compile a list of the most popular textbooks that are used at the infant, primary and secondary school levels for inclusion in the survey. There was also the use of some tertiary books.

“There is a guideline that the Ministry uses to ensure that we covered the books that parents must purchase for the back-to-school period,” White noted.

In keeping with the ministry’s guidelines, a total of 173 popular textbooks were used in the survey. The list included 12 from the infant level, 57 from the primary level, and 104 from the secondary level. The books, combined, covered 19 subject areas.

White said observations revealed that while infant and primary level texts were readily available in most outlets visited, the availability of other texts was generally low as some bookstores indicated that they had not received their new stocks at the time of the survey.

Other bookstores indicated that they had delayed ordering their new stocks due to the uncertainties experienced in the education sector, because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The data from the survey is available on the CAC’s website at https://www.cac.gov.jm/portal/index.php.

People may also download the CAC app from the Google Play and Apple Play stores to view the data.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

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Black Immigrant Daily News

The Opposition People’s National Party (PNP) has criticised Prime Minister Andrew Holness over what, they say, is his focus on mourning the death of Queen Elizabeth II instead of tending to pressing issues facing the Jamaican people.

The Government announced an official mourning period of 12 days following the passing of the British monarch, from September 8 to 19, with a Day of Mourning to be observed on September 18.

A period of 10 days of mourning was declared in the United Kingdom.

Queen Elizabeth, who was officially Jamaica’s head of state, died on September 8 at age 96.

Holness, along with the Queen’s representative in Jamaica, Governor General Sir Patrick Allen, is expected to attend the state funeral for the Queen at Westminster Abbey in London on September 19.

But Opposition spokesman on national security, Peter Bunting said he was embarrassed by the Prime Minister’s emphasis on mourning the Queen.

“I am personally embarrassed as a five-time parliamentarian that Jamaica still has the British monarch as head of state. But, my disappointment is even greater that the first Prime Minister born after Independence [Holness] is in such need of ideological decolonisation that Jamaica is mourning the Queen even more than the British people are mourning the Queen,” Bunting said at a PNP constituency meeting in Arnett Gardens, St Andrew on Sunday evening.

“I want to point to the Prime Minister’s exaggerated attention to mourning the queen rather than the pressing issues facing Jamaica today. What about mourning the 1,063 Jamaicans who have been murdered in Jamaica this year already? What about mourning the children in schools without adequate numbers of teachers and facilities because of the failure of this government to prioritise education?” Bunting asked.

He added garbage collection and health care facilities as issues in need of urgent attention from the Government.

The Opposition spokesman suggested that the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade or Jamaica’s High Commissioner to the United Kingdom could be sent to represent the country at the funeral.

“The Prime Minister does not have time to attend CARICOM heads of government meetings but is off to stand in line to mourn the Queen,” the former national security minister said.

Meanwhile, president of the PNP Women’s Movement Patricia Duncan Sutherland, while expressing condolences to the royal family, noted that the monarchy was at the root of inequality in Jamaica.

“We want to say condolences to her family and her country because this is not her country. This is our country,” she said.

While stating that, on paper, the Queen, and now her son King Charles III is head of state, Duncan Sutherland said it could not be denied that colour, class and gender were at the centre of inequality here.

“It didn’t happen by chance, it happened because there was colonisation and there was slavery, and that happened because of the United Kingdom,” said Duncan Sutherland.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Please see below full statement issue by the Office of the President:

Georgetown, Guyana (September 13, 2022) His Excellency Dr Irfaan Ali today proclaimed that Monday, September 19, would be a National Day of Mourning in sympathy and solidarity with the Royal Family and the people of the United Kingdom and other Commonwealth nations, over the passing of Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II.

On Monday, the long-serving British Monarch would be laid to rest.

According to the proclamation signed by the President, all authorities, boards, commissions, corporations, public agencies, Ministries and citizens are asked to fly the National Flag at half-mast.

Queen Elizabeth II, who died at the age of 96 last Thursday, reigned for 70 years.

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Black Immigrant Daily News

Win a brand new Suzuki Baleno from Coca-Cola!

Through the BBC Uncap and Score promotion 1 lucky consumer has the chance to win a brand new car, and even more consumers can win instant prizes including: football jerseys, footballs, hats, $50 vouchers and more. So, how do you get the chance to win?

From September 2- November 30, 2022 purchase a 500ml Coca-Cola, Sprite, Frutee, Shweppes or any BBC no sugar brand with the gold cap. Look under the gold cap for a unique code and enter it on the promotion portal at HTTP://LNQ.IN/COCA-COLABBor text it to 1246 839 8008. Both the grand prize and instant winners will be chosen randomly and notified via the contact information submitted. All entrants must be 13 years or older to participate.

If you are an instant winner, redeem your prize by visiting any participating store on Fridays between 3pm-6pm or Saturdays from 1pm-4pm with your device with the winning message, the cap with the winning code, and a valid proof of ID. All winners must present the winning cap when redeeming a prize.

The participating stores are:

SOL SPEIGHTSTOWNSOL WARRENSSOL SIX ROADSESSO OISTINSESSO WORTHING ESSO BLACK ROCK

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