South African education lists fear state publishing move

Educational publishers in South Africa are meeting with the National Department of Basic Education this week in a bid to allay fears over a potential move towards state publishing that trade figures believe would “totally decimate” the industry.

Educational publishers and representatives from the South African government will meet on Thursday (11th February) to “clarify” where each party stands in the school publishing market. The meeting follows increasing concerns from publishers that the government is moving towards state publishing for school textbooks in a bid to save money and, in doing so, are undermining the biggest market in South Africa for educational players such as Pearson, Oxford University Press, Cambridge University Press and Macmillan Education.

Publishers began being squeezed in 2011, when the country’s education department brought in a policy limiting the number of government-recommended textbooks per subject to eight. Once that rule was implemented, Mpuka Radinku (left), c.e.o. of the Publishers’ Association of South Africa (PASA), said the trade body’s membership dropped by around 30% (from 180 to 130) as smaller players in particular lost the ability to compete on range. In March last year, publishers’ troubles worsened when the government pledged to recommend just one title per subject in a bid to reduce its expenditure by taking advantage of the resulting economies of scale.

PASA energetically fought the proposal, which is yet to be implemented, Radinku said. However, the threat still looms over the industry and will also be on the agenda at this week’s meeting, he added.

The largest threat to the future of educational publishers in the South African market is a possible government move towards further state publishing. The education department already publishes exercise books for pupils and has also begun publishing textbooks in certain key subject areas. Radinku said: “We have said to the department: ‘It is important we know what your aims are with regards to state publishing.’ We want to find out, if it is involved in state publishing, what the department is publishing and what it is not publishing. If the state is publishing all textbooks, then what is the role for publishers in South Africa? Part of [the meeting] is to clarify this point.” He added: “It is difficult to speculate what the state will say. It is already involved in producing [exercise] books and textbooks for areas such as maths and science.”

Radinku added that: “If state publishing was brought in, it would decimate the publishing industry for both big and small publishers. It will close off the space the industry has had for many, many years. Big and small companies that are struggling to support themselves will be hit by this and that will be very bad for this country’s education. At the moment publishers compete to produce quality learning products, so the quality is driven upwards because there is choice. When there is no choice, what will happen to the quality if the state becomes the only player?”

Radinku hopes next week’s meeting will clarify the rules: “We want to know if we will still have space for commercial publishing. The question from publishers is going to be: ‘How sure are you that the space that you have given us will allow us to operate successfully?’”

Brian Wafawarowa (right), chairman of PASA, board member of the International Publishers Association and executive director of learning resources for Pearson in South Africa, said that the concern over state publishing was “significant”, yet he is “cautiously optimistic” that the department would not infringe upon an industry that employs thousands of people, particularly because such a move would have a knock-on effect on other industries. He said: “There are around 2,000 people permanently employed in the industry, but with booksellers and sales reps and others associated with the industry, that brings the number to around 20,000. Some people doubt if the state has the capacity to get into publishing, because we have significant logistical problems in delivery here. I am cautiously optimistic it won’t come to that.”

A note in Pearson’s trading update, released last month, reported that South Africa’s textbook market had “fall[en] 60%, from a peak of R2.9bn in 2013 to an estimated R1.15bn in 2015, due to a smaller new adoption cycle in 2015 and budget pressures”.