UNB, Dhaka :Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid on Wednesday urged the Jamaat-e-Islami to withdraw its hartal called considering the interest of 4.5 crore school students as free textbook distribution among them will begin today Thursday.The minister came up with the request while talking to reporters at his ministry on Wednesday.This year, the government will distribute 32.63 crore copies of textbooks among about 4.5 crore primary and secondary-level students for 2015 academic sessions, said the minister.”Like previous years, the ‘Textbook Festival 2015’ will be celebrated across the country on Thursday, marking the distribution of new textbooks among students,” Nahid said.The Education Minister asked the Jamaat-e-Islami to withdraw the hartal for security reasons of the students.Despite Jamaat’s daylong hartal, the Textbook Festival 2015 will be celebrated across the country and the new textbooks will go to students, Nahid said.”Jamaat’s hartal is an anti-education hartal. The Jamaat-Shibir has been enforcing hartal one after another for destroying the new generation,” he added.Earlier on Tuesday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the free distribution of textbooks among students up to secondary level under general, madrasah, and technical education boards at a simple ceremony at her official residence Ganabhaban in the morning.Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid will inaugurate the festival at the capital’s Motijheel Government Boys School in the morning through distributing new sets of textbooks among the students.
