Stopping illegal sale of textbooks

In the event of a demand-supply mismatch involving any item, essential or otherwise, unscrupulous elements usually try to take advantage of the situation in a country like Bangladesh where one can easily getaway with committing a crime. Lately, that is happening with the textbooks that are made available to primary and secondary level students free of cost. As the relevant government agency has failed to distribute books to almost half of the students, criminals have started selling textbooks in Dhaka and other parts of the country. The police, reportedly, have seized three truckloads of textbooks in Dhaka and Sherpur and arrested some alleged criminals in this connection.

While it is very important to arrest criminals involved in illegal sale of textbooks, police should also find out where the former did get those from-- did they print the books themselves or that they got those from some other sources? It is more important to unearth if anyone from the textbook board or related authorities was involved. It is also not unlikely that printing presses employed to print the books might have a role in the offence.

This crime involving the textbooks is not just like any other petty offence; the gravity of the offence lies in the fact that they committed the crime when education authorities are find it difficult to reach books to the students and when the learning process of the students is seriously hampered for delayed supply of books. This incident shows how the rot has set in amongst us. Not only that criminal offences like extortion, mugging, kidnapping for ransom and even killings are increasing rapidly but the situation has also assumed such alarming proportions that one can hire killers spending a small amount of money.

The countrymen also noticed the most abominable acts of corruption and plundering of public properties allegedly by none other than the immediate past prime minister and her henchmen close to the corridors of power. The committee tasked with the job of preparing a white paper on the country's state of economy cited the misappropriation and looting of funds from major areas of the economy. The white paper estimates that annually around $16 billion i.e. a staggering $240b had been smuggled out of the country during the reign of Hasina. They did all these under the slogan of zero tolerance against corruption. These fake anti-corruption crusaders have actually institutionalised corruption, prompting others to indulge in illegal activities including hoarding of textbooks. They have made elimination of corruption from society difficult.

Like in many other areas, Bangladesh has disgracefully failed to formulate a standard education policy during more than 50 years of independence. The authorities have conducted many useless experiments with education, the result of which is nothing other than uncertainty in the education system and drastic fall in quality. They have also failed to keep textbooks free from errors or distorted information. The first victims of such an anarchic situation in the education arena are the students and ultimately the entire nation. Authorities must make utmost efforts to free education from all anomalies and supply students with books in the shortest possible time. Steps should also be taken to stop corruption and illegal activities in the education sector.