Dhaka, Mar 07 (V7N) –Over two months into the current academic year, school students are yet to receive all their textbooks, with around 30 million textbooks still pending printing. Most of these books belong to the secondary level, according to sources at the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).
The NCTB claims that the issue will be resolved by March 10, and students will receive their textbooks by then.
Previously, on January 9, Chief Adviser’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam told the press that the issue of textbooks had been discussed by the Cabinet, which had said that all students would receive their textbooks by the next month, February.
Later, on January 13, the then-education adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud also said students would receive all textbooks in February.
However, the NCTB has still not been able to resolve the crisis.
The board alleges that despite having enough paper in stock to print the 30 million textbooks, printing press owners are not collecting the papers, which has caused the delay.
Acknowledging these issues, NCTB Chairman Dr AKM Reazul Hassan told this correspondent that printing and distribution would be completed by March 10.
Meanwhile, Tofayal Khan, chairman of the Printing Industries Association of Bangladesh, said: “If they [the authorities] supply paper in March but demand books by February, it will not be possible.”
He claimed that the NCTB had delayed delivering the first batch of paper. “Although they were supposed to provide the second batch of paper today (March 4), they are unable to supply the full amount. Since the NCTB pressured printers for textbooks without delivering the second batch of paper, many had to buy paper externally to print books.”
Yet now, the NCTB was asking them to take the remaining stock of papers from the second batch as well as the entire third batch, Tofayal said, asking why would those who had already bought paper and printed books would buy the third batch from the NCTB?
The association head also blamed the NCTB’s “poor planning” for the paper issue.
When asked, Tofayal said most books could be supplied by mid-March, adding that the rest could also be delivered within this month.
According to NCTB sources, the total number of textbooks to be distributed this year is around 400 million.
Some 274.37 million textbooks have been printed for the secondary level. Out of these, 237.61 million books have undergone post-delivery inspection (PDI). This means that even though they have been printed, 35 million textbooks are yet to be distributed.
On the other hand, 91.22 million primary-level textbooks have been printed. Of these, 90.175 million have undergone PDI.
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