M M Jasim :
About 4.45 crore students of primary and secondary schools, madrasahs and technical institutions will get new books free of cost on the first day of the New Year (2016).
Marking the occasion, the teachers, the students and the guardians of the educational institutions will celebrate the ‘National Textbook Festival’ all over the country.
The Education Ministry and the Primary and Mass Education Ministry have chalked out elaborate programmes in this respect.
All primary schools, madrasas, secondary schools, and technical education institutions will remain open on Friday on this occasion.
On Thursday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the distribution of the free textbooks in her official residence Ganabhaban at about 10am. The Prime Minister handed textbooks to visually impaired students of six schools, three madrasas and one technical educational institution of Dhaka.
At the inauguration programme of the textbook festival, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said that on an average Tk 19.24 had been spent on each book. The expenditure included printing and transportation charges.
Nurul Islam Nahid will take part in the festival at Government Laboratory School at 9am and he will formally distribute new textbooks among the students.
On the other hand, Primary and Mass Education Minister Mostafizur Rahman will remain present at Mirpur National Bangla Government Primary School at 10am.
A total of 33,37,62,760 textbooks for 4,44,16,728 students of pre-primary to secondary level will be distributed on January 1.
The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NTCB) last year printed 32,63,47,923 books. The textbooks have already been sent to every institution throughout the country, the Education Ministry sources said. The students will have to collect their textbooks from their respective institutions.
Nurul Islam Nahid said that the textbooks had already been sent to the institutions. Although January 1 is Friday, a weekly holiday, educational institutions will remain open for distributing the books among students, he said.
The minister also expressed his satisfaction over the book distribution, as the ministries would be able to provide the news books on time. He also thanked all officials of the ministries, NTCB and publishers for their good performance.
Referring to the distribution of books free of cost, the minister said, “It is a rare example in the world. Many rich countries even did not distribute books free of cost. But Bangladesh did it.”
In 2010, the government began distributing free textbooks among students of secondary schools. Free distribution of books among the primary school students began in 1981.
