The New Nation - Internet Edition

ABOUT two months into the current academic year, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) is yet to publish English version textbooks for primary schools. The English version of textbooks are published for the students of English medium schools and kindergartens that offer education as per the board curriculum. Texts in six books for students of classes 1 to V have been changed this year but the students have no option but to buy the old books, those too pirated copies. The NCTB is responsible for production and distribution of primary, secondary and higher secondary textbooks.

Textbook board officials reportedly had 'no assessment of the demand for such textbooks' and they were 'very busy' last month to deal with the crisis of secondary school textbooks. But some printers enlisted with the board gave a different story that the board had not enough paper in stock for printing these books. The enlisted printers were not interested in printing the English version books because the board did not provide them with 'security paper' meant to check piracy of textbooks though papers were available for Bangla version of textbooks. Taking advantage of this, a section of dishonest printers have been publishing pirated copies of the textbooks. The NCTB has failed to publish such textbooks on time last year.

The board published English version textbooks in last July. Secondary school level students at many places across the country are yet to get textbooks on a number of subjects. Even in the district of Manikgonj, not far away from Dhaka, text books of various subjects are not available in the market. Innumerable printing mistakes, missing pages are noticed in some books that are available. Booksellers again, are reportedly charging higher prices as, they allege, the publishers in Dhaka have doubled the prices of books. Banned guides and notebooks have meanwhile flooded the market. Immediate steps are needed to address the problems.