E-textbooks and poor needy students

A front page news report on electronic textbooks was published in a local English daily recently. It was yet another example of discrimination against the poor. In this case, poor students who need free textbooks will suffer; whereas the rich students can access it through a website, where it is provided free, as reported. Despite the free access to the website, one has to pay for having computer facilities, printer and paper for printing, all of which can be had by spending money. The statement that "Any one can download the contents for free and read these also over mobile phones"; is all meant for the better off; and definitely not for the poor students. Only the well-to-do students can as stated "will be able to download textbooks from the website", or read it over mobile phones. For the poor and needy students, the good news was in the last line of the report; which stated: "About 23.22 crore free text books were distributed among 2.22 crore primary and secondary students in the first week of January this year". S A Mansoor Dhaka E-mail: sam@dhakacom.com