Secondary Level Students
Free supplementary textbooks from 2012 on cards
NCTB has to print 2 crore copies of textbooks for distribution among class VI to IX students. Books include English, Bangla grammars & rapid readers.
Apart from distributing free textbooks to students from primary to secondary level, government is planning to distribute supplementary textbooks free of cost to secondary level students from 2012 academic year.
To do so, it has to print and distribute over 2 crore copies of textbooks on 11 subjects for class VI to IX students, said officials of National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB).
"We could not distribute these books free of cost last year due to some problems. We recently sent a letter to the education ministry requesting for allocating money for this," said Prof Mostofa Kamal Uddin, chairman of NCTB.
Currently, class VI to IX students buy supplementary books including English Grammar and Composition, Bangla Byakaron (Bengali grammar) and Rapid Reader.
Affording these books is difficult for a significant number of students in rural areas and therefore they fail to perform well in examinations, creating a gap between rural and urban students in pursuing knowledge, said officials of NCTB.
As government does not formulate manuscripts, print and distribute these books, some unscrupulous publishers take illegal benefit by managing the school authorities, through a syndicate, to buy their substandard books.
NCTB analyses these books, written by different writers, and approves a list of books by fixing their prices, said NCTB sources.
Besides, the publishers illegally print fake supplementary books for sale.
"If government distributes these books free of cost, students of rural areas would benefit and illegal trading would end," said an official NCTB.
Contacted, Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid said the ministry has not yet formally taken any decision in this regard.
"But our aim is to ensure education free of cost. We will soon decide on this matter through a meeting,” he told The Daily Star yesterday.
This year, government distributed 23.22 crore textbooks among some 3.22 crore primary and secondary level students.
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