TDS Desk

There were no students at the Segunbagicha High School in the capital at around 12:00 on Wednesday. However, headmaster AKM Obaidullah was at his office. He said he has been provided with three books each for the first, second, third, eighth, ninth and tenth grade. He has received one of the two books of pre-school level.

The office of the Ramna thana education officer is right beside the school. Books are being provided free of cost to some 51 educational institutions including secondary schools and madrasahs under this office. Their total demand for textbooks stands at 456,464. However, as of yesterday, they received 22,770 eighth grade books and 22,554 tenth grade books. The textbooks of other grades were not available as of Wednesday.

This is a fragmented picture of distribution of free text books across the country. The scenario was more or less the same all over the country. As a result, a number of students didn’t get the textbooks on the first day of the year.

According to the National Curriculum and Textbook Board of the total 410 million text books to be distributed this year, only 60 million have been delivered on the first day of the year.

Education adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud expressed regrets to the students and guardians for not being able to provide all the free textbooks on 1 January.

Addressing the inaugural ceremony of the online versions of the textbooks on Wednesday as the chief guest, the education adviser said, “I express my sincere regret to the guardians and the students for not being able to provide all textbooks on time. However, when you get the books, they will look better than before and the pages won’t tear in the middle of the year.”

The online versions of the textbooks are available on the NCTB website.

“When you get the books, they will look better than before and the pages won’t tear in the middle of the year,”

                                           —————said Professor Wahiduddin Mahmud, Education Adviser

The NCTB develops curriculum and distributes textbooks to primary and secondary level students free of cost. Educational institutions across the country have been holding a festival to distribute free textbooks among the students on the first day of the year since 2010, except for the years of the coronavirus pandemic. However, the government sometimes missed the deadline too.

However, the problem further intensified this year. In the current situation, it is not yet certain whether it will be possible to distribute all the books by February or not.

Addressing the event yesterday, Siddique Zobayer, senior secretary at the Secondary and Higher Education Division, said, “We couldn’t provide all the books to all schools on 1 January. But we tried to ensure that at least some of the students get some books on the first day of the year. But, we promise that we will try to deliver all the books by 30 January.”

Addressing the same event, NCTB chairman professor AKM Reazul Hasan said some 60 million books have been delivered as of Tuesday. Some 40 million more books are likely to be delivered by next Wednesday. All the primary books will be delivered by 5 January and all secondary level books will be distributed by 20 January. They are working with that target in mind.

Riazul Hasan said, keeping in mind the waste that has been done in the name of the book festival on 1st of January every year, the education advisor said quality books would be delivered to everyone at the beginning of the academic year without the hassle of a festival.

THE REASONS BEHIND THE DELAY

Education adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud explained some reasons behind the delay in printing the textbooks.

The education adviser said it turned into a war like situation in the end. First of all, there was no option to print the books abroad. At the same time, some changes have been brought to the national curriculum, which increased the number of books.

Besides, many books had to be revised so that the textbooks contain politically neutral contents.

After that we had to ensure high quality printing, papers and book covers. Another reason is that many of the experienced NCTB employees were laid off due to unavoidable reasons following the regime change. Although some veteran employees were appointed, they didn’t have the experience to deal with people involved in the printing business for the last few years.