SINGAPORE - About 20,000 needy students were on Saturday (Dec 10) given first dibs on 400,000 donated textbooks.
Each year, NTUC FairPrice collects used textbooks at its stores then makes them available at distribution centres across Singapore.
This Share-a-Textbook programme is in its 34th edition and is meant to help needy families save on the cost of textbooks, as well as to recycle the books.
To make sure the books go to families who need them the most, 20,000 students who have been identified as needing financial aid were given priority selection of the books.
The general public can only collect the used books on Sunday (Dec 11).
This year, books were distributed at five locations: Changi City Point, City Square Mall, Warehouse Club, Gan Eng Seng School and Yio Chu Kang Secondary School.
Madam Sherinna Sin, 47, a corporate secretary, was at City Square Mall picking out assessment books for her daughter who will be in Secondary 4 next year.
"You can save quite a bit of money. Her textbooks for this year added up to $500," she said.
Books available for collection include primary to tertiary level textbooks, storybooks, dictionaries, encyclopaedias and assessment books.