Rising costs has prompted leading publishers of school books to offer to revise current editions less frequently.

The Sunday Times reports the firms have written to Education Minister Ruairi Quinn stating they will not publish any new versions of the books "within at least four years".

All eight are members of the Irish Educational Publishers Association and the move is a response to growing criticism from parents, who are concerned about how much they need to send to purchase curriculum materials for their children.

The cost of buying texbooks for the average second-level pupils is €238, rising to €500 for fifth-year students, according to the newspaper.

Mr Quinn, who aims to spend a portion of the €15 million book grant fund on secondary schools to help them set up rental schemes from September 2012, is also looking to bring down the price of the most popular books.

Switching to digital documents may help to lower costs further and a recent study from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development revealed Irish children outperform their counterparts in many developed countries with their ability to read from a computer screen.

Written by Donal Walsh

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