Partial distribution of textbooks begins

Contrary to the past trend, students received some of their required textbooks on the first day of the New Year on Wednesday.

There has been an uncertainty over the timely distribution of free books for the 2025 academic year, reports bdnews24.com.

Many students returned home without all their required text books and, unlike previous years, no textbook festival was held on the first day of the year.

Meanwhile, Education and Planning Adviser Wahiduddin Mahmud has apologised to students and their parents for the government being unable to provide all textbooks in a single day-- on the first day of the New Year.

Claiming a 'conspiracy' behind book distribution, the adviser said that "textbooks were seized in some districts."

He spoke at the inauguration of the online version of the textbook and MPO distribution programme for private school teachers organised at the International Mother Language Institute on Wednesday.

"I sincerely apologise to our students and their parents as we could not provide all textbooks to them at once. The consolation is that the books will look good when the students get them and they will not tear in the middle of the year," he said while speaking as the chief guest.

"I don't want to blame anyone, but there has been a big conspiracy. In some districts, textbooks were even seized. We confronted unimaginable opposition from every direction. Sometimes we didn't even know where the opposition was coming from."

The adviser expressed his gratitude to a few of the printing press owners and paper producers. "Although paper prices have risen, they supplied it at the old market rate as per my request," he said.

"Some press owners told me: 'Students have sacrificed their lives. Can't we do this much for them?' Hence we don't want to blame everyone," he added.

The adviser said they were taking notice of who was assisting the government and who was creating obstacles.

The matter will be evaluated and the information passed on to the next government.

The textbooks were revised very cautiously, Wahiduddin said. "Every day, the changes were scrutinised meticulously. There will be discussions on issues like who declared independence, who was the protagonist of the Liberation War or whether the Constitution was defied. My directive was that the changes should be objective. Nothing to worry about if the media criticises us for that."

The government drew flak for going back to the 2012 curriculum, the adviser said. "We changed the new curriculum suddenly. Hence the printing of new books got delayed amid all the rush," he said.

Wahiduddin said there would have been no way back from the new curriculum if it was continued for two years. He argued that one of the key problems in the new curriculum was that only general maths and general science would be taught in classes IX and X and there was no option to study advanced math or science.

"If I didn't study advanced math, I could not study maths at higher secondary, teach math to the undergrads at Cambridge University. O Level students study the same thing."

Some people criticised the government for "going backwards", he said. "No, we're not going backwards. Implementing the new curriculum could push us backwards. Hence, (we adopted the old curriculum of 2012)."

He also said they would start afresh next time as there was not enough time to revise the books this time. Only some revisions were done this time.

"However, in many subjects, we'll revise the books in such a manner that there will be no issues with continuation. Some revisions were done this year for the class IX books. The books will be revised in a manner that students will not face any trouble with continuation."

At least 60 million of the 410 million books were sent out to students as of Tuesday, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board Chairman Dr AKM Reazul Hasan said at the event. Another 40 million books were ready to be dispatched, he added.

"We'll be able to deliver all books for the primary students by Jan 5, eight books for the secondary students by Jan 10, and the rest of the books by Jan 20, and books for students in class X by Jan 5," he said.

Rabeya Akhtar, a student in class IV came to Rashid Adarsha High School in Mirpur to collect her textbooks on the morning of the first day of the new year. She had to return home empty-handed.

Although her school did not announce that new books would be distributed this time, Rabeya went to school with her mother on Wednesday, as she had for the past few years.

"I always come to collect books on the first day; that's why I came," she said. "The joy of new books is different. I would open them up and take in that particular smell. But today, none of that happened."

Rabeya's mother, housewife Umme Kulsoom, said that her daughter's school is unable to provide information on when the new books will be available.

"The books will change anyway, and if there is a delay, it will cause problems for our children's studies."

The tradition of handing over books to students on the first day of the year began in 2010 under the Awami League administration. It was held last year too.

This year, following the government changeover, schools were not able to arrange it. Teachers were able to hand over textbooks for some of the subjects - not all - to students in class IX and class X.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board, or NCTB, had earlier announced that a significant portion of students from class I to class III will not receive any new textbooks on the first day of the year and will have to wait until Jan 20.

Students in pre-primary, class IV and class V will also have to wait several more days for their books while secondary school students will receive books for some subjects in early January.

However, the NCTB says it will publish soft copies of all textbooks online on the first day of the year.

Students in class IX and class X at Pallabi's MDC Model Institute have received books for three subjects- Mathematics, English and Bengali.

Afifa Chowdhury Sarah, a class IX student at the school, says: "They did not say when I will get the remaining books. It would have been easier to study if I had received them a little earlier. Now there is uncertainty about when I will get all the books. It is unfortunate. If we got all the books, we could have planned out and completed the syllabus in a scheduled manner."

This time, Class 10 students will take their Secondary School Certificate examinations in 2026 with an abbreviated syllabus based on the Class Nine books of the new academic year.