Why not let the schools handle the "Used Textbook Project"?

It was reported on Channel NewsAsia on 6 December 2008 that there was a record number of students expected to collect free used textbooks under NTUC FairPrice's "Used Textbook Project". This year, there were more than 150,000 textbooks collected for distribution to needy students. This is certainly a good community project especially for the lower income families and those affected by the economic downturn.

As it was reported, Mr Zainudin Nordin, director of NTUC's Care and Share, said: "We know that the current economic downturn will have an impact on the ground, and that there will be more workers and members of the Union who will be affected. That's the reason why we are doing this in a bigger way. And we are coming in together as a labour movement - all the social enterprise, the community, NTUC - in a big way to help."

I am just curious. Why are the schools not involved in this "Used Textbook Project" that is meant for students from the needy families? The only way schools are involved, it seems, is that only four schools are being used as distribution centres. Is that the only role schools can play? As I understand, for each level, there are several sets of textbooks being used by different schools in Singapore. Would it make better logistic sense if at the end of the academic year, let all those students who want to donate their textbooks leave their textbooks in their own school. The reason is most likely the school would use back the same set of textbooks for next year unless there are revised editions. Leave it to each individual school to administer the "Used Textbook Project". After all, most schools would have an Administrator, Operations Manager and a Parent Support Group (PSG) by now. All of them could work together to administer this "Used Textbook Project" in a more seamless way while fostering a closer relationship between the parties.

I think this arrangement would be much cleaner and neater. It eliminates the hassles of collecting the used textbooks from different sources throughout the island nation and sorting them out when the textbooks used by different schools need not be mixed together in the first place. An effective purpose of the "Used Textbook Project" should be better driven by a more efficient way of collection and distribution.