‘All students will receive new textbooks by mid-January’

Education Advisor Chowdhury Rafiqul Abrar has said all of the new textbooks for both primary and secondary students will be distributed before the middle of January next year, reports bdnews24.com.

Speaking at the launch of uploading soft copies of the new textbooks online at the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) in Motijheel on Sunday, Abrar said: "Academic activities will resume by mid-January next year, and almost 100 per cent textbooks will be delivered to students by then."

Printing is already complete for 85.9 million copies of primary grade books.

However, for secondary students, printing of 214.3 million copies was delayed towards the end of the year, raising concerns that students might not receive all textbooks at the start of the academic year.

Addressing these concerns, Abrar emphasised that there is no reason for "unnecessary hype".

"Reports in the media were accurate in parts, but some reports were not entirely made in good faith," he said.

He added that the reports were created by different interest groups, but the administration did not "contest" them, focusing on the work at hand.