TDS Desk

Education Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud on Wednesday apologised to school students and their guardians for failing to provide all the children with textbooks on the first day of New Year 2025.

He also blamed conspirators and textbook printing business monopoly for creating obstacles to the distribution process, warning of action against the accused.

By 1 January, six crore books have already been distributed and the rest would be distributed in all the schools across the country by 20 January, officials said at the launch of the online version of textbooks at the International Mother Language Institute on Wednesday.

At the event, the education adviser said that despite conspiracies and obstacles textbooks were printed domestically at the government’s fixed rate. The government managed to complete work for all the books without support from foreign publishing companies, he said adding the Awami League-era policy of foreign reliance has ended.

List of those accused of manipulating and monopolising the printing works will be handed over to the next government, he said.

For the time being, plans have been taken for purging every ministry. Many corrupt officials of the education ministry have been transferred, and former corrupt officials would be brought to book through the Anti-Corruption Commission, Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud said.

Chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) Prof Dr AKM Riazul Hasan highlighted the immense scale of this year’s textbook revisions and distributions. “We have revised 441 books in just two and a half months. Six crore books have already been distributed, and four crore are ready to be loaded onto trucks,” he said.

Dr Hasan assured that all primary and 10th-grade books would reach schools by 5 January, and the remaining books by 20 January.

This year, the government has printed some 400 million new textbooks.

The revised editions include significant changes, with some prose, essays, novels and poems being omitted, while new stories, poems and historical topics, such as the July mass uprising, have been incorporated.

Adjustments have also been made to the contents related to the Liberation War, including the declaration of independence, with some topics being added and others removed.

The authorities remain determined to complete the distribution within the set timeline despite challenges.