School year begins sans textbooks

Distribution of free books set to take weeks

LAHORE:

The new academic year has begun in the government schools of Punjab amid uncertainty about the provision of free textbooks to a large number of students.

According to sources in the provincial school education department, the production department of the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board was responsible to print the books by March 30 but now the process is unlikely to be competed in the coming two weeks.

The textbooks of Islamiyat, mathematics and general science had not been provided to thousands of students by the first day of the academic year on Saturday. The sources said the textbooks of grade seven and eight had not yet been delivered to the schools in the remote districts of the province.

They said delay in payment to some publishers was among the reasons of the current situation.

Speaking to The Express Tribune, a senior official of the Punjab School Education Department said, “Around 12 million students of the public sector schools had to be provided the textbooks free of charge. The department had advised the CEOs of all district education authorities to establish warehouses in collaboration with the district education officers.”

The warehouses had been set up and teachers assigned duties in all districts to distribute the free textbooks in the government schools. However, a large number of books have not been delivered to the warehouses so far.

“In some districts, the books of some subjects are not available. A shortage of the textbooks of general science, English and Islamiyat has been reported from several districts.

Any effort to streamline the process and look into the mismanagement has also not been observed ahead of the beginning of classes,” the official said.

An official of the textbook board said the tenders for publishing the books had been awarded but the authorities of the board had not come up with an explanation regarding the delay in their printing. He said the board was not in a position to provide the books to the schools in the coming two weeks.

“The books for the 7th and 8th class were sent last week for printing and their production will be delayed for around a month,” the official said and added that the students and teachers would have to spend the period without textbooks.

Published in The Express Tribune, April 4^th, 2023.