Shawdesh desk:
The new academic year has started from 1 January, but due to the printing crisis, students have not received all the books yet. While around two-thirds of the primary school students have received the books, the secondary school students are still struggling due to book shortage.
Consequently, educational activities at schools are not in full swing even after weeks of starting the academic year.
The authorities are trying hard to finish printing textbooks as soon as possible by overcoming all the hurdles hampering the process, said officials concerned. The work of primary level books has progressed quite a bit, and now the authorities are prioritising printing secondary level books.
An official of the textbook wing of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) told the Daily Sun on condition of anonymity that they started the work in February last year to finish printing all the textbooks by January this year.
However, after the ouster of the fascist Awami League government in August 2024, all the previous work became meaningless as 441 books were revised following changes in the curriculum.
Many stories and poems have been newly included in the textbooks. Besides, there is also a shortage of paper. All these have delayed the printing work.
Otherwise, all the work would have been completed by January. He also said that taking lessons from this crisis, NCTB is thinking of supplying paper to the printers to distribute books quickly from next year.
NCTB and the Ministry of Education are saying that all the books can be supplied by February as they are helping the printers to overcome their crises.
However, the printers said that it may be possible to provide all the primary books by the end of February, but it may not be possible to supply all the secondary level textbooks until March or April.
In this regard, former president of the Textbook Printing and Marketing Association, Tofail Khan, told the Daily Sun, “After overcoming various crises, the pace of work has now increased. The work on small books has decreased. Now the pace of work on large books will increase.
“With the help of NCTB, art cards might arrive by the last week of February. As a result, it will not be possible to deliver all the books in February. However, at the current pace of work, if no new crisis arises, then all the books can be delivered by March. It will not be possible before that.”
Schools struggling to run curricular activities
Sources said that students of many schools in Dhaka, Khulna, Rajshahi and Chattogram divisions have not received all the new textbooks. Most students from first to third grades have received books. However, many students in the fourth and fifth grades at the primary level and the ninth and tenth grade of the secondary level have not received books for most of the subjects so far. They mainly received books for Bengali, English and mathematics, but many students have not received them yet.
As a result of this delay, schools have not been able to start their activities fully even after weeks of starting the new year. Many schools are not holding classes properly, and student attendance is also very low there due to lack of books.
According to NCTB data, around 40.15 crore copies of textbooks are being printed for 4.34 crore students from the pre-primary to the 10th grade. Of which, 9.19 crore of books are for the primary level. Books for Ebtedayi and small ethnic groups have also been included in this. Besides, 30.96 crore of books are being printed for the secondary level. In addition to that there are also 8,500 braille books.
NCTB Distribution Controller Hafizur Rahman told the Daily Sun, “As per the instructions of the chief adviser, we are working on printing textbooks by prioritising the classes. At the moment, the work on books for grades 9 and 10 of secondary school is going on very vigorously. Hopefully, all the books will be available to the students by February. We are working in that way. Even if the work is not completed by February for some reason, it can be completed by the first week of March at the latest. It will not take much time.”
Abu Naser Tuku, the production controller overseeing the work on the primary textbooks, told the Daily Sun that 65% of the work on the primary textbooks has been completed. The work on the primary textbooks has currently slowed down due to the work on the secondary textbooks. However, all the work will be completed by February.
National Curriculum and Textbook Board Chairman Prof AKM Riazul Hasan told the Daily Sun, “The work of printing textbooks is going on with the highest priority. We are currently working on the 10th grade books. Once this is completed, we will start working on the 6th to 9th grade books.
“Printing is taking time as the 6th-9th grade books are bigger than the other textbooks. Most of the primary books have been supplied. In all, we will be able to hand over the books to all the students by 20 February.”
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