Printing of school textbooks completed, claims JEMC

  • JEMC was assigned to print a total of 17,753,218 units of textbooks

Kathmandu, April 6

Janak Education Materials Centre today claimed that it had completed printing of school textbooks and started distributing them from yesterday.

Anil Jha, general manager, JEMC, said, “We have already printed 16 million textbooks from Grade VI to X.” He said they have already started dispatching textbooks to regional offices located in Biratnagar, Janakpur, Bharatpur, Pokhara, Nepalgunj and Dhangadi.

“We have a total of 939 agents to collect and distribute textbooks. New agents have also been approaching us for registration,” he said, adding, “We will expedite textbook distribution from Sunday.” The government has been assuring guardians and students that textbooks would be distributed across the country before the beginning of the new session, which begins from April 14.

Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel has also announced a special campaign from April 17 to 27 appealing politicians, social workers, journalists and other concerned to visit their villages and inform the government about textbook availability.

Minister Pokharel had also visited JEMC yesterday to monitor printing of textbooks.

Devi Ram Aryal, deputy director, Educational Materials Section at the Department of Education, said JEMC has already printed 12,219,724 units of textbooks from Grade VI to X, while private printing firms have printed 18.3 million units of textbooks from Grade I to V.

JEMC was assigned to print a total of 17,753,218 units of textbooks from Grade VI to X this year. The government had authorised private printing firms to print textbook from Grade I to V. Aryal further said 1.5 million books were stitched while remaining 4 million books were being printed at the JEMC. However, guardians are skeptical about the JEMC delivering textbooks on time.

Suprabhat Bhandari, president, Guardians Association Nepal, today said JEMC was unlikely to deliver textbooks before the beginning of the new academic session given the speed at which the textbooks were being printed. “Textbooks have yet to reach regional offices. It takes weeks for the textbooks to reach schools from the regional offices,” said Bhandari.