Mistakes galore

In addition to lifeless writing, existing textbooks are riddled with factual errors. Cai and some 20 other professionals, mostly Chinese language teachers and education journal editors, formed a team to conduct research of Chinese textbooks in 2008.

A language textbook used in the 1970s.

They found many errors. For example, one text said American inventor Thomas Edison helped a doctor to perform an appendectomy on his mother when he was seven. However, the teachers found that the earliest appendectomy in the US took place in 1886, when Edison was almost 40.

Xiong Jianhui, who worked at Education Management Information Center in the Ministry of Education, told the Global Times that a lack of knowledgeable compilers is the reason for the poor quality of these books.

Compiling must-read texts are highly profitable in China, where education is empha-sized a lot and job opportunities, salaries and promotions are closely linked to textbook-based examination scores.

In China, there are about 200 million primary and junior high school students. A publishing insider told the Hainan Daily that "the textbook market makes an annual profit of at least 30 billion yuan ($4.5 billion)," thanks to the huge student population.

Local monopolies and protection enjoyed by State-run publishers leave no room for private publishers in the market. The Guangdong-based Southern Metropolis Daily reported Thursday that "Without market competition there can be no high quality textbooks to cater to the needs of readers."

Some local officials compiled and sold textbooks to schools, the report said.

"My son is 5 and will attend the first grade next year. I am worried for him," Cai told the Global Times. "The textbooks compiled by Ye are good reading, but cannot fully meet the needs of our kids. Its content is not rich enough for today's information age."

Cai argued, without a fundamental change in the market, revision of textbooks alone offers little hope.

The Ministry of Education announced Tuesday that they have completed collecting feedback on books used in over 20 provinces and cities, and that "the general picture is satisfactory" though there are some disadvantages.