State-owned JEMC fails to maintain quality of school textbooks
Government-owned Janak Education Materials Centre has failed to maintain the quality of school textbooks.
The texts in the books are unreadable, while the pictures are of low quality.
Sita Shrestha, a tenth grader at Imadole-based Shree Gamvir Samundra Setu Higher Secondary School in Lalitpur, said she was having difficulty reading her textbooks because of their inferior quality.
“The texts and pictures are unclear,” she said, adding, “On top of that, the textbooks are not properly stitched.”
Indira Aryal, teacher at Lagankhel-based Namuna Machhindra Higher Secondary School, shared a similar opinion. “The font size of texts are small and unclear in comparison to textbooks of previous years,” she said.
Hem Chandra Mahato, principal, Bhanu Secondary School (Durbar High School) said JEMC had compromised on the quality of textbooks.
As many schools have been conducting classes from temporary learning centres, students are required to handle their textbooks with great care during monsoon season. Mahato said, “The current textbooks easily absorb water due to use of low quality paper. We are afraid that the textbooks might be damaged during the monsoon season.”
The government had assigned the state-owned JEMC to print textbooks from Grade VI to X, while other private printing firms were asked to print textbooks from Grade I to V.
However, the textbooks printed by private firms are also of low quality.
Tukraj Adhikari, deputy director at Curriculum Development Centre, conceded that the quality of textbooks printed by JEMC was of poor quality and that they had received complaints regarding the same.
“The nominal price set for the books printed by JEMC might have played a role in low quality printing,” he said, adding, “The inner pages of the textbooks should not be less than 70 grams while the cover pages should be of 175 grams.
But our instructions has fallen on deaf ears.”
Anil Jha, general manager at JEMC, claimed that quality of textbooks had been maintained. “Ninety-nine per cent of our textbooks meet the standards set by the government,” he said.
He stated that a few defects were natural as they printed millions of textbooks. He also said that low-quality textbooks could be exchanged at the book shops.
“In our agreement with the agents, we have agreed to exchange the books with defects,” he said.
He also claimed that JEMC had already delivered 85 per cent of the textbooks.
