Still a lucky country in educational publishing

With all the changes currently going on in educational publishing, and the accompanying gloomy predictions for its future health, one could be forgiven for thinking the writing is on the wall. Sometimes you need to look over your neighbour's fence to be aware of just how lucky you actually are. Dudley Schroeder, executive director of the South African Publishers Association, gave some interesting statistics at a presentation at the Frankfurt Book Fair. In South Africa, there are about 25,000 schools. Only 7% of schools have a library. Four thousand have no electricity, while fifty percent of South African households have no books at all. Yet, Schroeder was very optimistic about the future of his industry, saying there was 'a real place for the educational publisher.'