National Curriculum and Textbook Board has been working to reach textbooks for primary and secondary level students at every district and upazila, including remote areas, by November 30 this year, said NCTB Chairman Professor Narayan Chandra Saha.
The government will distribute as many as 35 crore 13 lakh 26 thousand 207 copies of textbooks free of cost among the students on January 1, 2018 as like the previous years.
Some 4 crore, 36 lakh, 98 thousand 663 students of pre-primary, primary, secondary, SSC vocational, Ebteyadi, Dakhil and Dakhil vocational levels will get the books free of cost.
Saha told BSS that NCTB is working to prepare the textbooks to reach at every district and upazila levels by November 30 this year.
He said the free textbooks distribution before the beginning of academic year has been reducing dropout rate of students every year and the number of students from primary to secondary levels is increasing.
Saha said tender process has been completed to prepare 68 lakh 23 thousand 648 copies of textbooks for 34 lakh 11 thousand 14 students at pre-primary and primary levels.
Some 1 lakh 45 thousand 63 copies of textbooks are being prepared for 58 thousand 255 pre-primary and primary level students of five minority ethnic groups, he added.
The NCTB chairman said a process is underway to give work order to print and bind 10 crore 36 lakh 24 thousand 405 copies of textbooks for 2 crore 17 lakh 21 thousand 129 students at primary level (Bangla and English version), 17 crore 84 lakh 73 thousand 831 copies of textbooks for 1 crore 26 lakh 58 thousand 400 students at secondary level
(Bangla and English versions) and 39 lakh 73 thousand 179 copies of textbooks for 3 lakh 77 thousand 174 students at SSC and Dakhil vocational (trade book) levels.
He said work order has been given to prepare 5 crore 82 lakh 77 thousand 881 copies of books for 54 lakh 71 thousand 728 students at Ebteyadi and Dakhil levels and 8,200 Braille textbooks for 963 visually impaired students.
