Online school textbooks

The Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, opened online version of textbooks for primary and secondary education under a project Access to Information (A2I) Project at the PM's Office last Sunday. But all the books were already in the Internet in an earlier PDF format. The same books have been aired in a different format. It would be useful if we have teachers' guide in the internet i.e. how to teach each of the topics -- some worksheets, video clips of some topics by professional teachers, supplementary materials etc. In addition, still now there are no books in English version, curriculum etc., in the Internet Moreover, our textbooks have not been presenting lessons from concrete to abstract, starting with students' real life. All the text books are replete with closed-ended questions and no open ended questions that encourage students to be creative, innovative and imaginative. We would like to request the Prime Minister and the authorities concerned for ensuring proper use of public money. MM Khaleed Ahsan Sonargoan, Dhaka E-mail: mmkhaleed@gmail.com Poor ADP performance Most dailies have been reporting on the poor performance of the Annual Development Programme (ADP). It is related to the under-utilization of funds for the delay in executing development related works or purchases. By and large, these can be due to procedural problems, which are often beyond the scope of the concerned development executives involved directly in the process. This problem comes to the limelight mostly during the last quarter of the fiscal year; and since it is more or less, a regular feature, why don't the authorities improve the procurement and other related processes? It is high time that something is done to deal with this perennial problem. The primary reason is to avoid responsibility, and the various other subtle pressures, and unnecessary lobbying that needs to be tackled. Hence everyone tends to avoid the task of this thankless job of spending public funds and being unnecessarily accused of misuse of public funds. Further, the strict and complicated rules of procurement, and the subjective interest of those related to providing the services and goods and the underlying political leverages involved, all these tends to make the process difficult and risky for those involved in the purchase; as it makes them unnecessarily face criticism, most of which is subjective and related to selfish interests. This is an important matter, and our legislators should establish clear guidelines to ensure that the people involved in the purchase, do not have to face this hassle, which is more complicated than the purchase itself. This is what is happening; with subjectivity and indirect influence and intimidation leads to the delay, involving a long chain of bureaucratic observations, comments and its responses till final approval. The whole gamut of public purchase needs serious review to avoid these unnecessary pitfalls. S A Mansoor Dhaka