THIS is unacceptable that about 70 per cent copies of the textbooks are unlikely to be distributed to students on the first day of the next academic year. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board chair says that only 12 crore of the 40 crore copies will be distributed to the students on January 1 as the rest are still to be printed. The authorities say that 40.15 crore copies of textbooks 鈥� 62 lakh for pre-primary, 8.55 crore for primary and 30.81 crore for secondary students 鈥� will be distributed to about four crore pre-primary, primary, secondary, secondary vocational, ibtedayi, dakhil vocational, ethnic minority and visually challenged students in 2025. Besides, 1.92 lakh copies of textbooks will be distributed to the students from five national minority communities. Till now, the board has sent only three crore copies of textbooks for Class I鈥揑II and about 1.5 crore textbooks for Class VI鈥揦 to upazilas for distribution. The board says that five-six crore copies will be ready in the next few days, hoping that the rest will be distributed by January. Printers, however, say that the printing and distribution of the rest of the 28 crore copies of textbooks might take the better half of February.
The board and the printers have, meanwhile, blamed each other for the delay. Besides, the delay is believed to have been caused by changes in the curriculum after the political changeover, the revision of textbooks, the cancellation of previous tenders and the floating of fresh tenders. After the Awami League鈥檚 overthrow, the interim government decided to print textbooks for 2025 keeping to the 2012 curriculum instead of the 2021 curriculum, which made the board cancel previous tenders and float tenders afresh for textbook printing. The board, keeping to the 2012 curriculum, requires 27 per cent more books. While the situation has put pressure on the board and the printers, the printers are alleged to be non-cooperating. The board chair alleges that some printers stopped or slowed down the print job to create pressure on the board to allow poor-quality papers for the textbooks and the board has rejected more than one lakh copies of printed textbooks for poor quality. All this could be explained by the particular constraints created by the political change that happened in August and the consequent changes in the curriculum. But such delays in textbook distribution have become common almost every year while printers using low-quality paper and printing low-quality books are also common. The board had to withdraw many books in 2023 too as the quality was too poor.
The authorities, especially the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, have, therefore, issues to shore up. As the problem appears to happen every year, the board needs to follow a rigid calendar to ensure textbook distribution on the first day of the academic year. The board should not also fail to ensure quality paper and printing and that books do not contain mistakes.
