Jan 1 Textbook Festival: Not certain for all

For a decade, children have started their new school year with the smell of freshly printed textbooks, but it may not happen for all pre-primary and secondary students this year.

Printers of the free textbooks and officials concerned said the government would be able to give almost all primary students new textbooks on January 1 but delivery to pre-primary and secondary students have become uncertain.

As of Monday, about 98 percent of 9.98 crore primary textbooks for the 2022 academic year have reached the upazilas. But half of the 24.71 crore secondary textbooks are yet to reach the upazilas and work orders for printing 66 lakh textbooks for pre-primary were yet to be issued, according to National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) Chairman Prof Narayan Chandra Saha.

Usually, the NCTB is able to send around 95 percent of the textbooks to the upazilas by mid-December, according to insiders.

Delays in tender process, issuance of work orders, and other necessary work related to printing pre-primary and secondary textbooks, have created this uncertainty, said textbooks printers.

Even though there is only about two weeks' time left, Narayan and NCTB member (Textbook) Prof Farhadul Islam do not see anything to worry about.

"We will be able to send all books," Narayan said.

DELAYS IN TENDER, WORK ORDERS

Printers are not so optimistic.

"We usually get work orders in July-August … But this year, we got 84 days' time to deliver textbooks of class-VIII-IX from November 9 [when the work orders were issued]," Textbook Printers and Marketing Association President Tofayel Khan told The Daily Star.

He said retendering process of pre-primary books was completed on December 8. "Winners are yet to get work orders."

"We are in a tough spot. According to our estimates, around 70 percent secondary textbooks will reach upazilas by January 1," Tofayel said.

However, NCTB Chairman Narayan said, "If you have 70 or 84 days to deliver the books, it does not mean you will deliver all the textbooks on the last day of the deadline. You will need to deliver the books in phases. And the printers are doing that. We will get almost all books by December 31."

He said work orders for pre-primary textbooks would be issued soon. "They usually get 25 days' time to deliver. But this time we are likely to give them 10 days' time."

"The matter of delivering the pre-primary books is not a concern as these books are usually not given to students to take home. They are usually kept at schools," Narayan said.

NCTB sources said they needed to float fresh tender for pre-primary textbooks as there were some issues with papers for textbooks due to the pandemic.

Tender process for secondary textbooks was also delayed due to the pandemic. "During the initial tender, the printers unitedly quoted a rate 35 percent higher than that estimated. In the fresh tender, we got quotes 26 percent less than estimated," said Prof Farhadul.

The government is set to distribute over 34.70 crore textbooks to over 4.17 crore pre-primary, primary and secondary students.

Nearly Tk 1,100 crore will be spent on this.

SUCCESS

Narayan, and educationist and former NCTB member Inamul Haque Siddiki said the government has been successful in delivering almost all the textbooks to students on New Year's day since 2010, when the government started giving free primary and secondary textbooks.

Since 1991, primary students were getting half the textbooks free.

The government distributed 365.84 crore free textbooks between 2010 and 2021, earning praise from home and abroad.

The success of the distribution of free textbooks has led to significant improvements in enrolment in primary and secondary levels, as well as a decrease in dropouts, said Inamul.