Textbooks aren't regulated in the governmental sense (though they are somewhat at the middle/high school level), but there's certainly been more "regulation" in the sense of schools trying to enforce what books are used for what class for their own enrichment.
> there's certainly been more "regulation" in the sense of schools trying to enforce what books are used for what class for their own enrichment.
That has little bearing on the prices of textbooks. Also a school can't function without textbook standardization. That's hardly the same thing as regulation.
Are you saying that in any given UK primary school (I mean the actual physical school, not the school district, municipality, county, etc) they don't use the same textbook/curriculum across multiple classrooms in the same grade/standard?
Does each teacher or student/family chooses the textbook to use, without any standardization even at the same school?
I don't think UK primary schools use textbooks. There is a curriculum for state schools which is reasonably proscriptive (and set by the state directly), but in terms of planning, creating, and delivering lessons, each teacher seems to do it themselves. Sometimes if there is more than one class of the same year group (grade) the teachers will work together on resources, but not necessarily. (This has always struck me as inefficient; in reality, teachers share a great deal of lesson plans and resources, but there is no compulsion other than the curriculum.)
My understanding was that US school districts or even whole states selected textbooks for K-12 students that all teachers were expected to use in public schools, but I may have missed something.
And US university accreditation seems to be tied to exam boards who also publish textbooks which students are expected to buy; again, in the UK, there is nothing so organised (in the sense of "organized crime") and University accreditation is done by a separate non-profit, the QAA.
