A LEADING national daily on Thursday reported that the Textbook Board Authority is going to face setback in timely distribution of school textbooks to primary students in the New Year. The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) had planned to distribute 10.47 crore textbooks among 2.45 crore primary students by January 1, but until Wednesday printers supplied only 70 percent of the books. The slow down in printing and transportation to respective districts and down to school level will fail the government to ensure classrooms teaching in time. There is growing fear that though the distribution may start by early January, it would be only symbolic, the real distribution may take longer time even up to the middle of the year given the experience of the past years.
The NCTB may have many reasons but the cost of failure to students in term of failing to follow classroom studies will be enormous. In fact, the printing of the textbooks for this year began in the first week of September, one month behind the schedule. It mainly resulted from a controversy over deposit of 15 percent security money instead of 10 percent by contractors. They were also reluctant to agree to the condition that no payments would be made unless they ensure quality of the books to be verified by independent verifiers to be engaged by World Bank which provides fund for supplying textbooks free of cost.
As per news report the NCTB has therefore extended the deadline to printers to supply the textbooks by December 30 at the latest. This year 22 local contractors jointly secured NCTB’s orders to print the books after their tenders proved at the lowest. Over the past several years printers from outside the country did the job to led local printers to go on protest. This year since they got the business WB asked them to put additional security money and to ensure the quality of printing making the issue complex and delayed the finalization of orders.
Parents and school authorities are under pressure as the year-end is approaching as to how the students will go without new textbooks in the New Year. It may expedite school drop-outs. It is no doubt a failure of the government; which always boosts of achieving phenomenal progress in all fronts.
It is really sad to witness incompetence and lack of coordination in printing the school textbooks and making them available to the students in time. The Education Ministry is doing more harm to the education of our future generation than good. There is indiscipline and disorder nearly in the whole education sector. But the question is how serious the government is in education when incompetent persons are happily chosen for running the government.
