A group of high school students in the city of Zhuji in east China's Zhejiang Province have started a campaign to encourage fellow pupils across the country to take good care of their textbooks so the volumes can be reused.

The proposal has sparked heated discussion among schools and educationalists since the campaign began late last month.

Lou Xinyun, one of those behind the campaign, said: "Every year at the end of term, our class and dormitories are full of textbooks of all kinds, which have only been used for five months, but we will not use them any more. Meanwhile, we know that there are many children from poor families who are unable to afford books."

The youngsters calculated that if the textbooks of the 220 million high school and primary school students in China can be reused for five years, the country can save 528,000 tons of paper a year, worth more than 31.68 billion yuan (US$3.82 billion).

Hou Jihui, deputy director of the city government's education bureau, said: "In the United States, textbooks can be used for five years and in Japan for 10 years. In China, a developing country, we need to save more funds and resources for the country's construction.

"We think highly of this proposal and are sure that it will help students to pay closer attention to their environment."

In fact, the reusing of textbooks will not only save paper but also a considerable amount of water, electricity, timber, coal and chemicals, said the young campaigners.

Zhuji has decided to try reusing textbooks in the near future.

Teachers and students generally favour the idea but others are not so sure.

Yang Yiqing, head teacher of Hangzhou Xuejun Primary School, said: "I am afraid that most parents will not like the idea, worrying about hygiene problems.

"If textbooks are to be reused, they (the texts) must remain similar without many changes every year. They should be reorganized to leave out the exercises (to be filled in), so that they won't be full of already-done exercises when they are passed on to the following users," said Yang.

(China Daily December 12, 2002)