Ensure students receive books immediately

In the history of Bangladesh's primary and secondary education, there has never been such an embarrassing situation for students. For the past 15 years, students have been accustomed to receiving new books on January 1, marking the beginning of their Book Festival. However, as January is coming to a close, many students still have not received all their books. While some have received two or three books, there is uncertainty about when they will get the rest. According to reports published in the media on Monday (January 20), the education department has stated that it may take until February to distribute all the books. However, given the current situation, it seems that while all primary books may be distributed by February, it could take until March for the secondary books to be fully distributed, according to printing-related experts.

As a result, educational institutions are operating in a messy manner. Many students are not attending school regularly, and when they do, only one or two classes are conducted. This delay is causing significant harm to students, and its impact will likely be felt throughout the year and potentially for their entire academic life, as a single year is crucial for a student’s education.

Education experts have cited that delays in printing books occurred due to a special situation this year. After August, when the printing of primary and secondary textbooks began in full swing, the process was delayed due to curriculum changes, textbook revisions, and tendering procedures. Given these realities, teachers must now play a special role. They should collect textbooks from the NCTB website and conduct regular classes to ensure students' education is not hindered.

Although the NCTB website provides PDF versions of some books, downloading them has proven difficult. On one hand, many students still haven’t received their textbooks, and on the other, the difficulty in downloading the PDFs is further impacting students' studies. Parents and teachers are concerned that the longer the delay in book distribution, the more prolonged the problem will become. There is also a risk of inequality in this process, as printing and distributing these books will incur costs. Therefore, the best solution is to ensure that all students receive their textbooks as soon as possible.

But even the education adviser does not know when students will receive all their books. Given the circumstances, it seems that there has been some negligence on the part of the government in the printing process. Whenever there is a problem, the government tends to blame political changes as the reason for the issues, but if political transitions are blamed for a matter as crucial as education, that is a significant problem. The government should have treated this issue with more priority than any other. Holding students hostage in this manner is a failure of the government's judgment.

Furthermore, it's worth noting the absurdity of the claim that classes cannot be held due to the lack of books! Is it not possible to conduct classes without books? If there was a genuine desire, teachers could have conducted subject-based classes. They could have discussed the fundamental knowledge of Bengali, Math, English, Social Science—any subject—without relying on textbooks. Abandoning classes under the pretext of not having books will be extremely harmful to students. Still, textbooks are irreplaceable in primary and secondary education. If there is further delay in book distribution, even the first-term exams may be postponed. Many schools may struggle to complete the prescribed curriculum within a year, leaving students without sufficient knowledge or understanding of key subjects before moving to the next class, which will certainly impact their learning in subsequent years. Therefore, efforts should be made to provide all students with their textbooks as soon as possible, and if there is any further delay, at least try to ensure that classes continue as scheduled.