K-P textbook board official says syllabus did change

Parents, students complain new books unavailable in the market.

PESHAWAR: Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board Chairman Dr Fazal Rahim Marwat has admitted that the syllabus for the ninth grade has been changed, except for English and Islamiat.

Dr Marwat said that in March, the government had provided 30 million rupees worth of new books to state-run schools. He also rubbished reports that there was a shortage of books as the new academic year begins for Peshawar’s schools.

However, a shopkeeper Mumtaz Askari said that books for grade nine are not available in the market because the government changed the syllabus and the new course has not yet reached them.

Moreover, he said, due to prolonged power outages, books are not being published on time. He said it is expected that the new course will arrive within a few days.

Students and parents have also been going about the city trying to get the required course books.

“Teachers do not allow us to enter the class without books,” Basheer Ahmed, a grade 9 student, told The Express Tribune. “We came here to get books but they are not available. We don’t know what to do.”

Some parents are being told to return to the shops at another time. “The shopkeeper keeps telling me to come ‘tomorrow’. We are fed up of coming again and again to the same shop,” said a disgruntled father Faqeer Muhammad. “The students’ precious time is being wasted due to shortage of books!”