Publishers and booksellers, more funds for the purchase of school books

(ANSA) - TURIN, OCTOBER 16 - More funds to guarantee all students the tools necessary to make the right to education effective, optimization of the publishing chain to overcome the current criticalities, especially on the distribution side.

These are the requests of the Italian Publishers Association (AIE) and the Italian Booksellers Association - Confcommercio (Ali) which, at the Turin Book Fair, reaffirm the centrality of the school book in the training processes and in the stimulation of reading.

    Aie and Ali ask the government to increase the availability of funds for the purchase of textbooks for less well-off families and provide suitable mechanisms to allow their availability, as provided for in the Family Act. The two associations are also committed to overcoming the current critical issues on the distributive which in some cases - also due to an exceptional shift in the adoption process - have prevented bookstores from having books available to students before the start of the school year.

    "Since the first months of the lockdown in the spring of 2020, the school book - recalled the president of the Aie educational group Paolo Tartaglino - has been an exceptional tool available to students and teachers in order not to interrupt the training process. The pandemic, however, has also caused inequalities. and, as an association, we reiterate that the right to study and the fight against educational poverty and school dropout must be central to the country's policies. ". "Recognizing the centrality of libraries in the distribution of texts is an important first step in starting the confrontation between our associations; we hope that together we can build a new model of relations between economic operators. The textbook has one of the best publishing industries in the world,it is and can be a valid tool for the growth of reading if supported in its distribution by professional operators such as booksellers "commented the president of Ali Paolo Ambrosini. (ANSA).