As per an estimate, 2.4 million textbooks are required in Sudurpaschim this year
BAJURA, JUNE 6
It has already been almost a month since the new academic session began for schools in Bajura, but students are yet to get the required textbooks.
Bajura has a total of 51,537 students. According to Education Development and Coordination Unit, Bajura, Information Officer Ramesh Bahadur Janal, only 25 per cent of the required textbooks have been supplied to the district so far.
"It's been 20 days since the academic session began and we have also wrapped up the enrolment campaign, but as there are no textbooks.
This has obviously created problems in the teaching-learning process," said a local teacher Dhana Bahadur Bohora of Jagannath Rural Municipality. "In the case of some classes, teachers and students aremaking do with used books, but for other classes whose subject syllabuses have changed, there is no way we can start classes without new books as even teachers don't know what to teach," he added.
It's worth noting that even the district headquarters Martadi is said to have only 30 per cent textbooks sup-plied by now.
"As Janak Education Material Centre hasn't supplied us books, we can't supply the same to schools," said Chandra Khati, who owns a stationery in Martadi.
Himali Rural Municipality acting Chief Administration Officer Raj Bahadur Bhandari feared supplyingtextbooks would be difficult beyond mid-June to the local level.
"As there are chances of rainfall and disruption of roads, it will be difficult to supply textbooks to schools if they can't be supplied by mid-June," Bhandari said.
Meanwhile, textbook crunch isn't an issue in Bajura only, but the entireSudurpaschim province.
As per an estimate, some 2.4 million textbooks are required in Sudurpaschim this year. But one month into the new academic session, and students still do not have textbooks in their hands.
Janak Education Materi-al Centre Sudurpaschim Province Office Director Dhrubaraj Panta admitted that the centre had failed to supply textbooks to schools on time, but he attributed the delay to the local elections. "As we had to print ballot papers for the local elections, the same caused some delay in printing the textbooks," he said.
A version of this article appears in the print on June 7, 2022, of The Himalayan Times.
