Will learners get new textbooks in their hands on time?

Masum Billah :
Newspaper reports say that the book distribution ceremony will take place on 30 December though it is held usually on the first day of the New Year. It has been taking place every year since the inception of distributing books free of cost even though all the students of primary and secondary level cannot take part in the ‘book distribution ceremony’ as all of them don’t get the new books on that day. The media reports and practical situation have clearly hinted that our students are not going to get new textbooks in their hands on the first day of the New Year (2022). This might be one of the causes of holding the ceremony on 30 December instead of January 01and the NCTB chairman’s going on retirement in December might be another reason. NCTB has released the news that pre-primary students usually don’t get free textbooks, they get only scripts that are ready. To print books for grade seven and eight students the owners of press and NCTB developed a contract on 9 November that will take minimum 84 days which means before 31 December the textbooks for these two classes will not be completed. Besides these two classes, the textbooks for other classes have been printed partially.
Our experience says that the distribution of textbooks free of cost among the students witness some common types of anomaly every year. Students of all parts of the country don’t get books timely that sparks discussion, criticism and counter discussion. Last year in some areas books were distributed till October. As books are free the students and guardians don’t react so much. On top of that, many students and even teachers don’t use the pure textbook as some companies create subsidiary books or helping books on the basis of NCTB textbooks. When these books are torn or lost after several months or in the middle of the year, students don’t have any option to get new books. They can neither procure it form any shop. So, this system of reading the text from notebooks might be the only alternative option for them.
Being unable to decide the market price timely, inviting tenders again and again, starting printing work after the stipulated time, giving responsibility to unskilled and inefficient officials, making capable officials OSD, the sluggishness of the ministry, NCTB high officials’ giving less importance to book printing than vying for the position of Chairman of NCTB can be attributed to partial book printing and getting late to distribute books among the students. It is learnt that the Prime Minister’s Secretariat has also got involved in distributing process of textbooks. It means how much importantly the government has taken the matter that we appreciate. This thing has further made NCTB active and they have also developed 39 monitoring team along with ten teams from prime minister’s secretariat. NCTB has got involved in the great work of publishing, printing and distributing a colossal amount of books instead of developing, thinking, conducting research, revising quality books for the future generations that creates other kind of problems. Our NCTB authorities take pride in uploading textbooks on its website but they don’t get think how much user friendly it is! Being in the city of Dhaka city one takes several hours to download a text. What happens to those who live in remote parts of the country?
In the education year 2022 for the primary and secondary level students 34 crore 70 lac 22thousand 130 books will be published. Out of these, 9 crore 98 lac58 thousand 874copies for primary and 24 crore 71lac63thousand 256 copies for secondary level students. NCTB statistics showed that on 15 December 2021 only 16 crore books have been published and 10 crore of them have already been sent to the district level offices and the rest will be completed by 31 December as NCTB desires or claims that seems impossible. Bangladesh Textbook Printer and Supplier Association president Tofael Khan says, the children who are going to school for the first time in their life are not going to get the textbook on 01 January 2022. In the face of these grim realities NCTB wants to open ‘ Book Distribution Ceremony’ and the Prime Minister herself will inaugurate it. We get confused to learn the message. How will it be possible when more than half of the textbooks still are not printed yet. Sending them to districts and from districts to upazial and from upazila to individual schools means a series of steps and formalities to reach the books in the hands of the students. Is it possible? Agrani Pinters situated in Noakhali has got the order to print 60 percent of the primary level textbooks that sounds impossible to complete in the stipulated time. It also sounds strange how this company got the orders of so many books. The answer has been published in the newspapers that this company is very powerful and influential. When this stands as a criterion to get textbook publishing award, can we ensure it for all types of students irrespective of their living in village urban, haor and baor areas? 100 crore books will be published by this company. How is it possible for them? The Printers and Publishers Association has complained against them but who bothers about it? They also say that many useful information have been suppressed and kept hidden just to show the situation normal. Students and most students will not get the new textbooks in hand on time. The current NCTB chairman is going on retirement in this December and he will not be available to respond to the situation awaiting ahead even though he says that everyday 50 lac books have been published.
Though NCTB has been entrusted with the responsibility to develop curriculum and revise curriculum as per the needs of the time keeping pace with the changes taking place around he globe, it has turned itself into a textbook printing and distributing organisation with commercial the objective in mind. To speak the truth, they have become a book publishing and printing industry where monetary gain keeps many officials here for years in liaison with the influential section.  
 If we really want to further strengthen and upgrade NCTB, the position of its chairman should be upgraded to the equivalent position of secretary so that they may not have to wait for the decision of the ministry. It should be given full autonomy to work freely and independently. It’s true that there is no curriculum expert in the ministry. However, they stand in the way of NCTB’s work or intervene just to maintain their supremacy that causes unnecessary delay of any work. Side by side, NCTB must be made the sanctuary of all education experts, educationists, specialists in the true sense of the term. What prevails now here? This organization has become a store of the favoured people of the influential who either this way or that way. That means, they are not much answerable to the nation, their influential link is enough to manage everything. On top of that, government officials who are supposed to be posted in NCTB for three years and for any exceptional cases, it can be extended to further another term. Against this fact, many officials have made NCTB their prominent home and interestingly, nobody talks about it. If we really want to give a time befitting curriculum and turn this institution into a reasonable one, these fair weather friends and influentially connected officials need to be removed in the greater interest of the nation.

(Masum Billah is works for BRAC Education as an expert and is the President: English Teachers’ Association
of Bangladesh (ETAB))