Bajura, April 30

Two weeks after the new academic session started across the country, students of Province 7 of the far-west region still have not received school textbooks.

Janak Education Material Centre’s Regional Office informed that there was a textbook deficit of 25 per cent from grades VI to X in the region. The office informed that they need around 22 lakh textbooks from grades VI to X in the region, but only 1,625,000 textbooks had been supplied so far.

Yogendra Bhatta at the regional office said that over six lakh more textbooks needed to be distributed to meet the demand.

Textbooks were reportedly distributed on April 4 this year. “But we could not meet the demand as the centre has not sent us adequate number of books,” he said.

Sources in Janak Material Centre, Dhangadi said that they had distributed enough books to meet 85 per cent of the demand in Bajura, and 75 per cent books in eight districts of the region. The source added that Compulsory English, Moral Education for grade VI, Mathematics, Science and Moral Education for grade VI, and Science and Moral Education for grade VIII were scarce in the region.

Bhatta further said that the reason behind the book crunch was that the authority had published less books. “The textbooks will reach the region by the second week of May,” he said.

Private publications were reportedly given the authority to publish and sell textbooks from grades I to V. Books sellers said that textbooks from grade I to V were also scarce in the market.

The government reportedly spends more than one billion rupees to supply textbooks every year. In Province 7, the government has spent around 11 to 13 crore rupees to supply textbooks.