Kathmandu, March 29

The Department of Education has said no student from Grade I to X will be deprived of textbooks this academic year, which is set to start from the Nepali New Year starting on April 15.

At a press meet held here today, DoE officials said they had finished printing 90 per cent textbooks. The remaining 10 per cent textbooks will be printed and delivered to easily accessible areas within a few days, according to DoE officials.

The department needs to supply textbooks to all 77 districts within 10 days to fulfil its promise.

Deputy Director at Education Material Management Section at DoE Devi Ram Aryal said, “We are now focusing on delivering textbooks to remote places.

For this purpose, we have already provided money to the local levels. The local levels will buy necessary books from private vendors and the outlets of Janak Education Material Centre.

Deepak Bhandari, a representative of private vendors, said the books would be distributed by all printing firms affiliated to Federation of Nepal Books and Stationery.

As per the constitutional guarantee of free education up to Grade X, the government has been providing textbooks to students for free. The government is also set to provide colourful textbooks for students of Grade I to V for the first time.

Seventeen 17 private printing firms and the government-owned Janak Education Material Centre have been entrusted with printing school textbooks. Textbooks of Grade VI to X are published by JEMC alone.

According to a press release issued by DoE, it has provided more than Rs 2.222 billion to the local levels for the purpose. The department estimated the number of books needed for this academic session on the basis of number of students recorded the previous year.

The record shows 3,305,614 students were enrolled in Grade I to V  last year and 2,224,917 students were enrolled in Grade VI to X.