& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

50pc students won't get textbooks in 2-3 months

Printers allowed to do the job without tender

Suranjfth Deabnath
Around 50 percent of the students of classes VI to X of secondary schools who have already started their academic year this month will have to wait for at least two to three months more before they get new textbooks for the current year.
The National Curriculum ofTextbooks Board (NCTB) has already put the first lot of the new textbooks on the market on January 6, with more to follow this month, but the number of books they ordered for print last year is almost one half of the actual demand in the country.
Meanwhile, following instructions from the education minister yesterday, top NCTB officials held an urgent meeting with book printers and decided to permit publishers in the open market print the 14 main textbooks in order to tackle the crisis.
The step however docs not bring about
an immediate solution as it will take another two to three months for these additional prints to reach the students.
Teachers and printing agencies alike are blaming the situation on the indifference of the National Curriculum of Textbooks Board (NCTB).
The acute crisis has emerged mainly due to NCTB’s failure to evaluate the actual requirement of new textbooks when the syllabus has been changed.
The syllabus has been modified this year and a new method introduced, namely the creative question method, for classes VI to X. As a result every student will have to buy a new textbook this year.
The NCTB however floated a tender in November last year for only 2.62 crore books from classes VI to X whereas the actual demand in the market has been predicted to be well over five crore.
Usually 30 percent of old books are recycled every year and hence a lesser
number of books need to be published than the actual number of students in an academic year.
This year, however, every student will have to buy the new books which is why the demand is higher.
"How can the NCTB float a tender to print 2.62 crore books in a year when the syllabus has been modified? Around 4.10 crore books were printed back in 1996 when the syllabus was modified and all textbooks published afresh," pointed out Shah Alam, convenor of Standing Committee of Bangladesh Publishers and Marketing Association.
"Personally, I informed the NCTB officials both verbally and in writing about the exact number of textbooks needed for the current year. But they haven't paid any attention to our letter," said Osman Gani, owner of Agami Publication Ltd.
SEE PAGE 15 COL 4
FROM PAGE 16
However, NCTB Chairman Prof M Masir Uddin denies these allegations against the textbook board saying that NCTB officials arc not alone responsible for the ongoing crisis.
"It was only after the tender was completed that the printers and publishers informed us about the higher number of books needed this year. But we did not float a retender because of official rules," he said.
Publishing agency owners however point out that that finding out the actual demand of books is not necessarily their job, but the NCTB's.
The students are meanwhile continuing their lessons without any clear idea about the new concept in the absence of new books.
Kamrun Nahar, a senior teacher of Ispahani Girls School and College in the capital said. "We have begun classes on January 5 but most of our students are yet to get the new textbooks. For this reason, our classes are not running at full swing as they should be."
"I am panicking because I cannot follow the new method depending on the class lectures alone." said Sadia Arefin, a student of class eight in Viqarunnisa
Noon School and College.
Most of her classmates also feel the same way about the new system, she added.
“1 wanted 5000 copies from the wholesaler but received only 200 copies of the Bangla, English and Mathematics textbooks. They all sold out in four hours," said Mohammad Mahsin, a book retailer in Nilkhet Book market.
He however admitted that he was selling the books at a higher price titan the actual government price but blamed it on the wholesalers who were pricing the books high because of the shortage of books in the market.
The NCTB chairman said that they have already begun selling 14 textbooks since January 6 but alleged that a vested group was adding to the crisis by creating obstacles to supplying the books to retailers in time.
NCTB will put 37 textbooks on the market on January 15 and textbooks of 22 less important subjects on January 26, he added.
There are a total of 76 textbooks for classes VI to X in the curriculum under the board.