Textbooks left to rot

School administration allegedly did not hand over books provided by Punjab govt to students

It gives an idea what priority government functionaries give to education in Pakistan. According to media reports, recently thousands of books published by the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board have been found rotting in a government school in Narowal. Students and their guardians claim that such a large number of textbooks were left uncared for due to negligence on the part of the District Educational Authority. This act of negligence caused a loss of hundreds of thousands of rupees to the provincial government.

The Punjab government had provided thousands of free textbooks to a government school for students of classes VI to X at the beginning of the academic year in February. The school administration allegedly did not hand over these books to students, and they were left to rot in a classroom. Hence, students were forced to buy costly books from the market. Students and their parents claim these books will likely be sold to scrap dealers or might find their way into the market. Reports say a few years ago too, thousands of textbooks were sent to the school to be distributed among students. Some of the books were distributed while the rest were later sold as scrap. Parents claim that education department officials have been causing a loss of billions to the Punjab government on account of books apparently going to waste.

An official of the District Educational Authority, however, says the books found in a classroom of the Narowal school were not required by the school; they did not demand these books from the provincial government. The required textbooks were not sent, so he would write to the textbook board and return these books. Cases of textbooks left to rot in schools keep on occurring in the country. Informed sources claim they are either sold as scrap or to booksellers. Educational authorities should set good examples to students. Nature makes children happy and good; if they are otherwise, it is society’s fault.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 30^th, 2019.

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