The Ministry of Public Education wants to print the textbooks of class I to V themselves

The Secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education Farid Ahmed said that a proposal will be sent to the Prime Minister for printing the textbooks through the Directorate of Primary Education. He said, through this, the government will save at least 20 to 30 crore rupees.

The Ministry of Primary and Mass Education wants to print the textbooks of class I to V themselves. Such initiatives have been taken to ensure timely supply of textbooks, quality control of printing and ensure and error free. A preliminary decision was taken in a meeting on February 15.

The summary will be sent to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in a day or two for a policy decision. Once the Prime Minister approves, the ministry will process the tenders and print the textbooks instead of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).

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However, being an election year, the books of 2024 AD will be printed through NCTB as before. For this, the ministry has decided the action plan after discussing with NCTB, Directorate of Primary Education and other stakeholders. The target has been set to send the primary 2024 textbooks to all upazilas by November this year. And if the head of the government approves, the primary education department will be responsible for printing the textbooks of 2025 AD.

Secretary of the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education confirmed these issues. Farid Ahmed told Jugantar that the NCTB is 'overloaded' with ancillary work including curriculum development, printing of free textbooks from class I to XII. For this reason only book printing is being contemplated through DPE. He said, besides, questions are also being raised about the quality of book printing and paper.

Therefore, if it is not possible to print suitable books for students through private publishers, there is also a thought of getting the work done in the government printing house (BG Press) if necessary. Within a day or two, the summary will be sent to the Prime Minister's office for approval. After getting the policy decision, the next process will be started. However, the textbook of 2024 will be printed through NCTB. A schedule has been prepared for this. According to that, there is a plan to complete the printing work by October and deliver the textbooks to the upazila by November.

Regarding the printing of books for the year 2024, the Secretary of Public Education said that this year is an election year. We have taken more precautions than last year. In the meantime, I have held a meeting with everyone starting from NCTB, Directorate of Primary Education and made an action plan. I will proceed according to the action plan as this year's book is. This year we will ensure that all textbooks reach upazila level by November at any cost. For this, whatever needs to be done will be done as per the action plan.

9 crore 98 lakh copies of books were printed in 2023 AD for pre-primary, primary and elementary students. More than 345 crore textbooks were printed for the current year for primary and secondary level. This entire work has been done under the supervision of NCTB.