Release Dates Of Books Required
By Shareen Han

Bandar Seri Begawan - The Curriculum Development Department at the Ministry of Education should constantly update booksellers on the release of school textbooks and workbooks to enable them to inform customers and avoid conflict.

Bakar Ali, an assistant manager at Mubarak Book Emporium, cited piracy concerns as reasons for the late release of new syllabus involving Mathematics textbooks and workbooks.

He added the Curriculum Department should provide more information to booksellers on the date of release. "They should announce to booksellers, so that we can explain to our customers on why some of the new textbooks and workbooks are still not available at our bookstore," said Bakar.

Bakar told The Brunei Times that Mubarak had been preparing for its "Back to School" promotion three weeks before the school holidays started in December. "We started ordering 200 textbooks and 300 to 500 workbooks at the primary level, while for the secondary level, we ordered about 50 to 80 textbooks and 300 to 400 workbooks, as well as other school materials such as files and bags," he said.

Bakar, who has been working at Mubarak for five years, also assured the buying public that there will be no marked up price for local books published by the Ministry of Education.

He said business has been on a decline for years partly due to stiff competition as well as Brunei's slow economic growth. "It is only because of Mubarak's name and reputation that we are still surviving," he said.

He added that the bookstore, which was opened in the 1980s, will be expecting more parents purchasing textbooks and other school materials on the first week of January, the peak of schoolbooks buying.

"At the moment, families are enjoying December holidays and out on vacation, so the peak season will be during the first week of January," he said.

Mimi Kamis, a sales girl at TA & Morgen Distributors Sdn Bhd, said that not only local textbooks are released late but books from Singapore and Malaysia takes about three weeks to arrive, with printing and shipping cited as reasons for the late arrival. She said that books are also being supplied to students of tertiary education institutions such as Universiti Brunei Darussalam and Institute of Technology, Brunei. On the other hand, Basheer A, operations manager at Bismi Trading Sdn Bhd in Serusop, assured parents that they will have no difficulty purchasing textbooks and workbooks at their bookstore.

"Bismi has the full range, from local to Singaporean and Malaysian published textbooks, so there won't be any problems finding the books," said Basheer.

He said that the bookstore started its preparations in November and has ordered about 500 primary and secondary textbooks to be distributed to other Bismi bookstores in Gadong, Seria and two in Tutong district. The bookstore was established in 1978. He added that despite heavy competition from other bookstores, Bismi enjoys a flourishing business.

Meanwhile, Hjh Rohana Hj Tajuddin of Kg Sg Akar said she is buying workbooks before the textbooks afraid that of a workbooks shortage, which she encountered before.

"Some parents know early that they have to buy workbooks first, so now I'm following them to avoid not buying workbooks in advance, said the mother of five.

She said that she spends less than $100 for her primary school children while her secondary level children will require her to spend more than $100 on school books alone.

Sarimah Yusof from Kg Subok remarked that she has to spend more than $200 on books and other school materials for her Primary five child who studies at Sekolah Rendah Orang Kaya Besar Imas in Subok.

"I started buying today but usually I buy everything in one go, so that we won't have any problems getting textbooks," she said.-- Courtesy of The Brunei Times

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