The government is supposed to ensure availability of all the text books for students before their first school-day of the year. It is a key expectation of the people, especially of students and guardians, from their government.
In our country, schools begin their classes from January 1, but according to reports, the students are unlikely to have textbooks on all the subjects in their first school day in the upcoming New Year, which will start after 20 days.
New textbooks are a source of great excitement and joy to the students. They would like to flip through the pages of their brand new books, and many even enjoy the smell of the papers. It brings a sense of festivity among them.
For them it is a source of motivation also as they get the idea of their new mission, they would have to accomplish throughout the year.
It is learnt that manuscripts of textbooks of three subjects of Class Eight and Nine are yet to be readied. Usually, it takes nearly a month to publish the required books after receiving manuscript.
So, it is almost certain that students of these classes are going to begin their classes without all of their textbooks.
The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) is entrusted with the task of publishing school textbooks.
After the independence of the country, the task of developing and publishing the textbooks was carried out by 'Bangladesh School Textbook Board'. The National Curriculum Development Centre (NCDC), established in 1981, was responsible for developing national curriculum. Finally In 1983, for maintaining coherence between curriculum and textbooks, Bangladesh School Textbook Board and NCDC were merged and the new entity, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board, was created.
According to the National Curriculum and Textbook Board Ordinance,1983, major functions of the Board are to examine curricula and syllabi of schools and suggest revision there of; to pre-test and evaluate the effectiveness of the curricula, syllabi and text-books of schools; to arrange for the preparation of the manuscripts of the text-books; to arrange for the publication, distribution and sale of text-books.
They are the authorities to publish textbooks through collecting suitable contents from writers.
After collecting contents they prepare the manuscripts and outsource the printing works for publication of these books.
In Bangladesh, dozens of printers are enlisted to print textbooks from NCTB.
They also claim that they are the largest textbook publisher in the word in terms of the number of books.
Unfortunately, on very few occasions, the NTCB has been able to accomplish this task in scheduled time since its inception.
The repeated failure of the NTCB to duly perform its task often prompted the public to call upon the government to overhaul it (NTCB) to ensure timely distribution of school textbooks among students.
But despite issuing assurances time and again, the concerned ministry, so far, has failed to do this vital task.
And this failure is resulting in the sufferings of thousands of students every year.
A country, which is making strides to become smart and digital, cannot afford repeated failures to ensure availability of textbooks to school students.
It is urgent that measures are taken to reform the NTCB so that it is able to perform its once-in-a-year task in due time.
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