Almost all books sent to schools

More than four crore primary and secondary school students are set to get their hands on new textbooks on the first morning of 2015, as the government has made all preparations to distribute around 32 crore copies of free textbooks.

With only two days to go before the start of the distribution, around 99 percent textbooks for secondary students and 95 percent books for primary students have arrived in the upazila headquarters.

Upazila education officers have started sending the books to the respective schools, say officials of the education ministry and National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).

They also say children attending schools on the first day next year will return home with a set of new textbooks and that the government will celebrate the day as "Textbook Festival" day like the previous years.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would formally inaugurate the celebration by handing over books to students at different levels at the Gono Bhaban at 9:00am today.

The ministries of education and primary and mass education would jointly hold the festival at Motijheel Govt Boys' High School on January 1, said the officials.

“There will be no problem in getting the books for the students on the first day of next year," said Mustak Ahmed Bhuiyan, distribution controller of the NCTB.

The government has printed around 32.63 crore copies of textbooks to distribute among 4.44 crore students of primary and secondary schools, ebtedai and dakhil madrasas and technical institutions.

As of yesterday, around 99.36 percent of over 14.85 crore secondary level textbooks had so far been sent to the upazilas, said Mustak.

He, however, said they lagged behind in sending the primary textbooks to upazilas as there had been a delay in tendering for printing the books. So far, around 95 percent of 11.55 crore books had been sent.

“We will try to dispatch the rest to the destination by the night of December 31,” he told The Daily Star.

After a review meeting with the NCTB officials at the ministry yesterday, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said all the students would get their books on time.

He also warned of taking stringent action if any act of negligence in the distribution of books is found against any officials, headmasters and teachers.

In 2009, the government decided to distribute textbooks free of cost in the wake of textbook crisis recurring every year. It has been distributing books to both primary and secondary students at the very beginning of academic session since 2010.

The NCTB officials admitted that paper quality of "some books" was below standard and some books were damaged during transportation.

There will be no problem if some books are damaged as they have five percent extra books in buffer stocks, they added.