The New Nation - Internet Edition

THE target of achieving universal primary education and literacy might be difficult to achieve by 2015 if prices of books and stationery items used by the students cannot be kept within the purchasing capacity of their guardians. Prices of books and stationery goods have reached levels which majority of the guardians find difficult to afford. According to reports, prices of certain brands of stationery goods and books recommended by privately run English and Bangla medium schools in the cities are abnormally high.

Some institutions recommend specific text books which are available only in certain shops. The guardians are compelled to buy those at prices demanded arbritrarily by the sellers. Most of such schools prescribed with a motive for profit compels students to buy notebooks that bear the names of those schools. The mushrooming kindergartens even in the small townships are also driven only by profits. Even the government schools are not completely free from this problem. It is alleged that the subsidised books published by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board are given to bookshops to sell those at higher prices. Students both in urban and rural areas have to buy paper, pen and other educational equipment at prices beyond their reach. Exorbitant prices of stationery items, among others, have made educational expenses high. This is one reason why large numbers of students drop out of schools every year.

The government needs to take immediate steps to keep educational expenses within the reach of the common people and make books and stationery items used by students available at affordable prices. Alongside free and subidised text books, the students up to higher secondary level should also be provided with educational equipment at subsidised rates. Strong measures should be taken against making profits from books meant for free distribution or sale at nominal prices. The government must also establish academic control over non-government educational institutions. Educational institutions should never be allowed to be run entirely on a commercial basis.