Textbook distribution hits a snag as book printing not yet completed
The new academic year is beginning in just two days, but the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) is yet to finish printing a large number of books for primary and secondary classes.
Out of a total of more than 400 million books, clearance certificates or pre-delivery inspections (PDIs) have been issued for sending only 47.5 million books to the upazila level as of last Saturday.
As a result, all students across the country are not going to receive all the books on the first day of the new year. Hence, the NCTB is planning to start the academic year by providing at least three new books (Bangla, English and Mathematics) to students of all classes. However, an uncertainty has emerged as to whether that plan will be fully implemented or not.
When asked, NCTB chairman professor AKM Riazul Hasan on Sunday expressed hope that all students will be provided with at least three books on the first day of the year. Among them, students from grades I to III will receive some more books alongside Bangla, English and mathematics.
All books for classes IV and V will be reached by 5 January. Three books each for students from classes VI to X will be provided on the first day of the year. Books of five more subjects of these grades will be provided by 10 January. The remaining books will reach all students by 20 January.
However, sources at the NCTB and presses in charge of printing new books say that progress is good in printing textbooks for grades I to III of primary. Progress in printing textbooks for grades IV to IX is very slow. This situation has arisen due to delays in printing work, including changes in the curriculum, revision of textbooks, cancellation of previous tenders and issuance of new tenders, and late finalisation of inspection institutions after the political changeover.
The work of signing contracts with printers for printing a large number of books has not yet been completed. As a result, it will be difficult to reach all the books to all students before February.
The tradition of providing students with the new textbooks on the first day of the year started in 2010. In the last two-three years, the government could not provide new books to all students though it celebrated the ‘textbook distribution festival’ on the first day of the year. The current government has decided not to celebrate the festival this year.
NCTB sources said the number of textbooks up to class V is around 96.4 million this year. Till Saturday, over 43.5 million books were printed. Of these, around 34.7 million textbooks got clearance.
The books in the secondary level (including Ibtidai) is around 309.6 million. Around 13.2 million books have got clearance till Saturday. However, the NCTB chairman told Prothom Alo that the actual number of books printed is more than that. A huge number of books will get clearance in the next two days.
The new curriculum has been almost overhauled after the political changeover. Then the government decided to distribute textbooks of the curriculum introduced 12 years ago. To do that, the NCTB revised 441 textbooks by experts bringing about major changes in the contents.
Several contents including prose, essays, novels and poems have been removed while some new prose and poems on the July mass uprising have been included. Due to going back to the old curriculum, the total number of books also increases.
A person in charge of printing books, on condition of anonymity, told Prothom Alo that some factors caused the delay in preparing textbooks.
Firstly, there was a delay in revising the books. The other factors include dearth of papers for printing, NCTB’s delay in reissuing tenders and work order.
As a result, handing over textbooks to all students might take up to February, he added.