Students face book shortage next year

Punjab textbook Board yet to award contract for printing 180 million books.

LAHORE: The Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) has not yet started printing books for the next academic session, meaning many students in public and private schools will find it difficult to get textbooks for the 2011-12 academic session.

The PTB usually selects a publisher through a tender process in September each year so it can provide 100 million free textbooks for grades 1 to 10 to public schools under the Punjab Education Sector Reforms Programme (PESPR). The board also provides around 80 million books for private schools.

But the PTB withdrew its tender for the multibillion rupee publishing contracts in September this year and has not yet reissued it, leaving not enough time to print all those books.

“If the board advertises the tender now then the successful bidders can be given the contracts by the end of December,” a PTB official told The Express Tribune. “Keeping load shedding in mind, the PTB will not be able to provide free books for public sector schools at the end of February. The next academic session will be difficult for teachers and students because textbooks won’t be available in the market.”

Board officials said that the PTB had been paralysed into inaction by fear of offending the bidders for the lucrative contracts.

“The board is afraid of what losing bidders will do,” said the officials. “The printers are very powerful people. They are publishers of major newspapers, famous journalists and anchormen. They are using all available means to win the contracts.”

The secretary of the School Education Department, Aslam Kamboh, conceded that the board was under pressure from the bidders. “Unfortunately some publishers of newspapers and journalists have managed to register themselves as bidders and they are putting undue pressure on the PTB,” he said.

One official said that the PTB chairman, Sohail Masood, had washed his hands of the issue. He recently went on leave so he could go for Hajj. Though he has now returned, he has extended his official leave to December 5 and will likely stay on leave till he officially retires in March 2011, the official said.

Kamboh has appointed the additional secretary, Sheikh Ezhar, as acting PTB chairman. He hoped that Masood would still conduct the tender process. He insisted that this process would be transparent. The PTB official said that the acting chairman was also reluctant to complete the tender process.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 2^nd, 2010.