School and expensive books, a bloodbath is expected: how much will the cost increase?

A new school year brings yet another blow to families purchasing textbooks. Spending on these has increased 13% in ten years, bringing the outlay to an average of €580 per year per student for middle schools and €1,250 per year for high schools, according to Codacons, which released the contents of the Antitrust Authority's preliminary report on textbook publishing.

Considering a single first-year student, the estimated total expenditure for a child attending the sixth grade in 2025 will reach approximately €487.53. For a child enrolled in the sixth grade of high school in 2025, the estimated total cost will be approximately €685. To these figures must be added the costs of specific dictionaries, such as Latin and Greek, which are essential for certain courses of study: a Latin dictionary is estimated to cost between €75 and €100, while a Greek dictionary costs between €100 and €133, according to Adoc.

An analysis extending across the entire compulsory education cycle (eight years of schooling) reveals an even greater cumulative cost for textbooks alone. For middle school, textbook costs are €355.01 for the first year, €157.66 for the second year, and €149.94 for the third year, for a total of €662.61 for the entire cycle. For high school, textbook costs are €552.35 for the first year, €232.63 for the second year, €375.95 for the third year, €352.80 for the fourth year, and €348.39 for the fifth year, for a total of €1,862.12 for the five years. Overall, the total expenditure for textbooks alone for eight years of compulsory education is projected at €2,524.73. To these figures must be added the costs of dictionaries and specific technical materials for certain subjects, which could further increase the burden on families.

Spending increases while the number of students decreases

The first thing that stands out is the inversely proportional trend between family spending on books and the school population: in 2024, textbook sales revenue was approximately €800 million, with an overall increase in value of approximately 13% over the course of a decade. However, between 2019 and 2024, there was a decrease of nearly 600,000 students, or 7%, according to Codacons.

The problem of the new edition

The many critical issues affecting the textbook publishing sector are driving up costs for families. For example, the Antitrust Authority notes, "the market is highly concentrated, with the top four groups (Mondadori, Zanichelli, Sanoma, La Scuola) accounting for nearly 80% of the overall market." Furthermore, those who choose the product (teachers) don't pay for it, while those who pay for it (families) or use it (students) don't choose it. Also impacting are the high incidence of new adoptions from one cycle to the next, that is, changes in textbooks adopted by teachers, amounting to 35% in middle schools and a staggering 40% in high schools. Also impacting is the unfortunate phenomenon of new editions and novelties, that is, updated versions of existing publications or actual publishing innovations, which account for 10% of school textbooks each year. On this very point, the Antitrust Authority confirms the numerous complaints filed by Codacons over the years, arguing that these aspects not only reduce the possibility of reusing a school textbook, but also raise concerns about "opportunistic behavior in the modification of school works through new editions. In its current formulation, Article 25 of the AIE Code—with its generic reference to changes in 'content' that may justify the publication of a new edition—leaves publishers considerable discretion," the Authority writes.

The flop of digital books

The reforms adopted so far in the field of school publishing, including the adoption of digital books, have proven to be a flop, Codacons reports. According to the Antitrust Authority, "The spending caps, established in specific ministerial acts to limit the economic impact of schoolbooks, have proven ineffective: teaching staff are required to comply with these caps but are not overseen by adequate control tools. The self-regulatory initiatives implemented to date by the AIE in this regard have proven neither clarifying nor effective: Article 25 of the AIE Code, which should define when an edition can be considered "new," is vague and difficult to verify, since the 20% content change requirement is open to broad and subjective interpretation, possibly including graphic design changes. Paper books continue to dominate teachers' preferences, while adoption of e-books alone remains marginal."