Beijing, Sep 12 (IANS) Parents in China are complaining that every new semester their children receive textbooks along with matching cassette tapes that have today become “antiques” as many people no longer have cassette players.

Parents have called on the government to upgrade to digital education materials, the Shanghai Daily reported Wednesday.
They said education authorities are lagging behind people’s audio equipment, which have evolved from a radio, to a Walkman-type tape player, to a portable CD player, to a mini Mp3 player, and to today’s iPods.
Schools still offer 10 cassette tapes to students for textbooks in English, Chinese and music at the beginning of each semester.
Responding to parents’ wishes, authorities are studying methods to allow students to download digital material from websites.
Mario Hu, a university teacher in Shanghai, said most textbooks have been equipped with CDs instead of cassette tapes.
Students now copy the content of the CD onto their laptop, and then put the digital material into their MP3 players to study, he said.