Singapore’s largest textbook donation drive encourages the community to support students and reduce waste.
FairPrice Group has launched its 42nd annual Share-A-Textbook drive, aiming to collect used textbooks and study materials to support students preparing for the upcoming school year. Between November 16 and 30, members of the public can drop off their used textbooks at 11 collection points across Singapore, including nine FairPrice Xtra hypermarkets, as well as Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre and Vidacity, a sustainability innovation hub.
The campaign is a collaboration with over 30 community organizations, schools, and corporations, and is intended to enhance access to educational resources for students in need, promote sustainability, and encourage circularity by giving textbooks a second life.
Those wishing to benefit from the drive can pick up donated materials during a distribution event at the Tzu Chi Humanistic Youth Centre on December 7 and 8. Since its inception in 1983, the Share-A-Textbook initiative has distributed more than seven million textbooks to over 280,000 students, making it Singapore’s largest annual textbook donation campaign.
While FairPrice Group did not set a specific target for donations in 2024, the drive has seen impressive participation in the past. In 2022, over 725,000 textbooks were collected for the 40th anniversary of the campaign.
FairPrice Group also invites the public to volunteer in sorting and organizing the donated books between November 27 and December 6. Volunteers can register online, with the goal of gathering over 2,000 participants to help with the event. Any textbooks that are not collected will be sent to recycling centers to further reduce waste.
The campaign comes as the cost of textbooks has increased following the end of a two-year price freeze. In response, many Singaporeans are looking to second-hand textbooks, with 70% of respondents in a recent survey expressing interest in donating or receiving used books.
