This paper analyzed the current situation of publication industry of study books for high school students and studied how the publication industry has responded to policy changes in education.
The educational publication is estimated to take up about...
This paper analyzed the current situation of publication industry of study books for high school students and studied how the publication industry has responded to policy changes in education.
The educational publication is estimated to take up about 4,500 billion won in the nation's whole publication industry. Among this, publication of educational materials for high school students amounts to 269.3 billion won(186.8billion for reference books, 82.5billion for study books), just 6% of the whole market share.
But in reality, the publishers of educational materials for high school have been major target of heated debates on the problems of private education fees and the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT). The Ministry of Education announced that it would make up questions for CSAT out of EBS lecture textbooks in part of an effort to reduce private tutoring fees in Feb.17.2004. But that measure failed to achieve its purported goals. Rather, it begot a near monopoly of EBS lecture text books on the market and even a 30% loss in sales for publication industry of study books for high school, driving the industry on the brink of bankruptcy.
In fact, the educational publication industry is led by sales in study books for preschool and elementary schoolers, but the Ministry of Education didn't make efforts to cut cost in this sector. Instead it focused on the publication sector of study books for high school, rendering a big loss in revenue for the related publishers. This is nothing but the negative consequences of ramshackle policy made by the Ministry of Education to achieve rapid and ostentatious result in a short period of time.
The publishers of study books for high school have changed their main target from the textbooks to workbooks for examination, to study books and then to reference books in line with changes in CAST system.
To rapidly cope with changes in educational policy, the publishers have made a lot of efforts to diversify their businesses and enhance their planning power and quality of goods as well as marketing and satisfaction of consumers.
From now on, the publication industry of study books for high school also have to make strenuous efforts to improve its social images, establish desirable publication system and come up with measures to deal with a decrease in the number of student. They also have to keep an eye on the policy changes and express their opinions to be actively engaged in drawing up new educational policies for students, the real consumers. And they also have to study the needs of readers as educational policies and environment continue to change and reflect them in their publication. They also make sure that they supply consumers with good learning materials at a lower price while trying to improve their marketing strategies to expand market for their publication.