Refrain from formulating law to punish guide writers, publishers

Book publishers at a press conference yesterday called on the government to refrain from formulating a law which will punish guidebook writers, publishers and sellers published by private publishers across the country.
Bangladesh Pustak Prokashak O Bikreta Samity organised the press conference at Dhaka Reporters' Unity auditorium in the city protesting the seizure of unapproved guidebooks from market through mobile courts.
Presenting a keynote paper, President of the organisation Md Abu Taher placed a proposal to the government to reconsider the issue of short timeframe within which the writers and publishers will have to submit the books.
He said as different books have different contents, pictures and illustrations, they cannot have the same prize, adding, “The government should not go for the average costing of all books and should not give the whole authority to the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) for fixing the costs.”
He drew the attention of the government in regard to evaluating scripts as sometimes the evaluators might be less educated than the authors who might leave the books full of mistakes and lack of standards.
He called for changing the system and structure of education to make today's students competent for coping with the age of science and technology.
Lauding the government move of changing the question method, he also urged the government to consider the issue of amendment to the standards of textbook, teaching methods in classrooms and examination methods.
He said such initiative of banning all the guidebooks would close the way of the poor students to raise their standards along with creating a big unemployment margin, as thousands of people are involved in the book industry.
Vice presidents of the organisation Md Tajul Islam, Md Kamrul Hasan Shayak, SM Mohsin and SM Omar Faruk also spoke.