There are only 10 days left before the start of the new academic year. However, almost half (46.26 per cent) of the free textbooks at the primary level are yet to be printed. At the same time, some 31 per cent of the free textbooks at secondary levels has not been printed as yet. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has compromised the quality to get all the books in time. Despite that, there are doubts over whether it will be possible to provide the books to all students in tome or not.
This was revealed by relevant officials and persons in the NCTB and the printing company.
The government has been providing textbooks to the students free of cost through a festival on the first day of the year since 2010. The work is underway to print around 340 million books for the 2023 academic year. This time the textbooks and teacher’s guide for classes one, six and seven have been prepared based on the new curriculum.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, several NCTB officials said, even if it is not possible to distribute all books in every area, they will try to provide most of the books on the first day of the year. They hope that some 80 per cent of all the books will be printed by 31 December.
However, the NCTB officials avoided the questions regarding the quality of the books.
NCTB chairman Md Farhadul Islam told Prothom Alo that they were lagging behind in printing the books for primary level as compared to the books for secondary level.
However, with the time in hand, it would be possible to provide books to all the students through a festival on 1 January. It could take up to 10 January to distribute all the books.
Quality compromised
There were already doubts over handing over quality books to the students in time due to several reasons, including delay in issuing the work order, hike in the price of paper and getting the work at a cheaper rate than the estimated cost. Besides, several presses were trying to print the book with low quality paper, using the excuse of rise in the price of paper. The people concerned say in the end, NCTB fell into the trap of the press.
According to the sources in the NCTB, the brightness of paper was supposed to be 85-point. The presses were saying that quality pulp was not available due to the global crisis. Therefore, they had been demanding lowering the paper quality. Now the NCTB has accepted their proposal of printing books at a brightness level of 82-point. Such a compromise has been made at the behest of top officials of the education ministry to get all the books in time. However, there are allegations that several presses are printing books using paper with a brightness level even lower than 82-point.
Speaking to Prothom Alo, a NCTB official said, “We have already discarded books from more than 10 printing agencies due to low quality paper. Some three thousand books from Hawladar Offset have been discarded. Besides, around 300,000 copies of forme from Sarker Press, 200,000 copies of forme from Sarker Offset and 100,000 copies of forme from the Al Amin Press have been destroyed.
Speaking regarding the quality, NCTB chairman, Md Farhadul Islam said, “Due to the crisis of virgin pulp in the market, we have compromised the brightness to maintain other factors.
Doubts over 68 upazilas
In a letter to the NCTB director on 17 December, Uttam Kumar Das, director of the Directorate of Primary Education, mentioned that the Dash Disha Printers had got the contract to print and distribute a total of 132,387 books of classes one and two. This agency was given the charge of distributing books in a total of 47 upazilas, including 19 in the hill tracts. Although this agency has been given the contract to print such a large number of books, no one verified the quality of the papers of the books printed by them as of 17 December. Therefore, the uncertainty over printing, binding and distributing text books in time has increased further.
Another letter, issued on the same day, states that the Jahanara Press and Publications has got the contract to print around 994,000 books for classes one and two. However, no one verified the quality of the papers of the books printed by this agency either. Therefore, necessary initiatives should be taken on an emergency basis to start printing.
Tofayel Khan, former president of the Printing Industries Association of Bangladesh, told Prothom Alo, “The paper crisis is severe this time. And there were delays in some other issues, including the delay in preparing books as per the new curriculum. Therefore, it would not be possible to distribute all the books on the first day of the year. The brightness of the paper has been compromised due to the pulp crisis in the market. Now, it is being observed that several presses are printing books using paper with lower brightness levels.
‘Low quality not acceptable’
According to the NCTB sources, the total number of books for the secondary level in 2023 is more than 238,270,000. Some 164,535,000 books have been printed as of 20 December. Of them some 147,100,000 books have reached the upazila level.
On the other hand, more than 51,913,000 books for primary level have been printed. Of them, more than 37,500,000 have reached the upazila level.
According to several sources relevant to printing, after much delay the work of printing primary books commenced on 1 December. However, they are expecting to finish the work within the next 10 days as the number of pages is less in the primary books.
Former NCTB chairman Narayan Chandra Paul said, “Now they need to put pressure on the printing presses to get the books. However, low quality of the free books is not acceptable at all.”
*This report appeared on the print and online versions of Prothom Alo and has been rewritten in English by Ashish Basu