Oman launches own textbooks

By Lakshmi Kothaneth — MUSCAT: April 29 - Oman is launching its own academic textbooks and educational resources for the first time. A leap for publishing industry in the private sector in the country, this is the first time that academic textbooks are being published not only for schools in Oman, but also for the entire GCC region. The idea was first mooted at the Private Schools Education Symposium, organised by the Directorate of Curricula and Programmes of Private School, Ministry of Education, in November 2016.

A recommendation was made for a tie-up between the Government and private sectors for upgrading and developing educational system in Oman.

Dr Jalal bin Saleh al Hadhrami, founder and chairman of Celebrity Holding and founder of Hadash Holding, said: “The educational resources market is worth RO 156 million in Oman and RO 2 billion in the Middle Eastern market. Students’ resources are an overlooked industry. Hadash is procuring resources as well as stocking them in Oman.”

House of Hadash, in coordination with the Ministry of Education, international organisations and schools, has launched academic books for KG to Grade 10 in ICT, KG to Grade 6 in English and Arabic series called Imani KG 1 to KG 2, as well as ICT in Arabic language.

The organisation has been authorised by 35 international publishing houses around the world.

An interesting aspect of the new development, said Dr Jalal, is that SMEs have immense opportunities. “The smaller and medium enterprises can come under our umbrella as long as they go along with our business ethics and bylaws, and gain from the company’s expertise as well as reach out to a bigger market. Our overheads are low and that reduces our cost of production. The message is also not to buy pirated copies of academic books. In addition, teachers will be trained free on the curriculum.”

“In the RO 156 million market, 75 per cent is procured from outside the country. This means the sellers did not have to pay any tax on profit to Oman, whereas we and other distributors in Oman can provide non-oil-based revenue and contribute to the country’s GDP,” said Dr Jalal.

The publishing house has already sold 150,000 copies of ICT books as they were approved in Oman, UAE and Jordan. A total of 200,000 English textbooks have been sold and half a million books in both subjects printed currently.

The publishing house is exploring the markets in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait. Also in the pipeline is the publication of science, math and literature books.