Bhaktapur, January 21

Students of five districts, where the new academic session begins from February, are unlikely to get their textbooks on time this year as well.

Private publication houses, which have been given the responsibility of publishing textbooks along with Janak Educational Material Centre, Sanothimi, have said that they would not be able to publish the required number of textbooks within the deadline given by the government.

In Manang, Mustang, Humla, Jumla and Dolpa districts, new academic session begins from February 13 and to commence the new session on time, these districts require a total of 223,580 textbooks.

The government has given the responsibility of publishing textbooks of 25 different subjects for Grade I to V to 17 private publication houses and the government-run Janak Educational Material Centre.

For the new academic session, a total of 35,736,726, textbooks are required all across the country for students of Grade I to X. Of the total number, private publication houses will be publishing 16,528,070 textbooks required for Grade I to V students, while JEMC will have to publish as many as 19,239,656 textbooks required for Grade VI to X students.

Private publication houses have expressed their inability to deliver textbooks on time saying that Curriculum Development Centre did not provide them print ready copy on time.

Dipak Bhandari, a representative of Sudipa Publication and Fourpan Publication, said the government provided enough time to JEMC, but very limited time to private publishers. “JEMC publishes textbooks throughout the year, but private publications were given only three months’ time,” he added.

However, officials at CDC have different opinion. “We provided print ready copy to all the publication houses on January 10 and they have more than enough time to publish the textbooks required for five districts,” said Krishna Prasad Kapri, executive director at Curriculum Development Centre.

“Considering the fact that Janak Educational Material Centre does not have the capacity to publish all textbooks required for the new session, we gave the responsibility to the private publishers,” he added.

JEMC has already published colourful textbooks and almost half of the textbooks have been delivered to the concerned districts. “Of the 19,239,656 textbooks, we have already published 13,500,000 textbooks and remaining textbooks will be published by March 29,” said Kapri.