Public school students unlikely to get coursebooks on time
The government is unlikely to provide textbooks to students by the first week of the new academic session, which is beginning from April 13.
Sarita Aryal, vice president, Guardians Association Nepal, said it would be impossible for the government to distribute textbooks to students as promised given the pace at which Janak Education Materials Centre was printing them.
She claimed not even 50 per cent textbooks had reached the districts.
Education Minister Giriraj Mani Pokharel had expressed commitment to provide textbooks to students before the beginning of the new academic session.
According to a report submitted by a monitoring team of the Department of Education, 381,000 sets of textbooks are needed in Chitwan but only 150,000 have reached so far.
In Janakpur, there is a requirement of 1,800,000 sets of textbooks, but the district has so far received only 900,000. Similarly, only 50 per cent of the 2,600,000 sets of textbooks required are available in Biratnagar.
As of today, JEMC has printed only 13 million of the total 17,753,218 units of textbooks. The government had allowed JEMC to print textbooks from Grade VI to X and printing firms from Grade I to V.
A meeting of Textbook Distribution, Management and Monitoring Central Committee under the chairmanship of director general of DoE was held today where the JEMC and private printing firms pledged to provide textbooks to students as early as possible.
Deepak Bhandari, a representative from private press, today said they have already dispatched 80 per cent of textbooks to the districts. Private printing firms had been assigned to print 18.3 million textbooks from Grade I to V.
They claimed that they have already completed printing of the given number of textbooks.
“We are confident about distributing textbooks to students on time as 80 per cent of the textbooks have already been dispatched to the districts. We have enough in stock if more textbooks are needed,” said Bhandari.
Anil Jha, general manager, JEMC, also claimed that textbooks would be provided to students on time. “We have already started dispatching textbooks to our regional offices.”
Free Textbook Distribution Day
BHAKTAPUR: The government has decided to celebrate April 17 as Free Textbook Distribution Day. Baikuntha Aryal, spokesperson, Department of Education, said on Sunday that the prime minister and ministers are expected to distribute textbooks to students across the country on this day.
He said the DoE has already started distributing pamphlets in the district to inform students about free distribution of textbooks.
DoE has printed 35,000 units of pamphlets for the purpose. A 15-day textbook distribution campaign will begin from April 17.
