C T Online Desk: The government has planned to distribute about 350 million textbooks to over 40.9 million pre-primary, primary and secondary school students for the 2023 academic year.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate the distribution of books from her office at 10am on Friday. A student from each class will receive a complete set of textbooks from the premier on the day.
Prof Md Farhadul Islam, Chairman of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB), said: “The primary book festival will be held at the central playground of Dhaka University on Sunday.”
Education Minister Dipu Moni will inaugurate the secondary book festival at Kapasia Government Pilot High School Ground in Gazipur.
Over the next 12 days, new books will be distributed among the students of grades VI-IX at educational institutions across the country in phases.
Till Wednesday, about 68% of the 100 million primary textbooks and some 81% of the 250 million secondary textbooks reached the upazilas.
Moreover, the government has printed 212,178 copies of textbooks in the mother tongues of minority ethnic groups, according to NCTB.
The NCTB chairman said: “Every year, we can send around 95% to 96 % of the textbooks to the upazilas by mid-December. This year, the whole process was delayed due to a shortage of sufficient paper and an increase in prices.”
He hoped that about 85% of the textbooks would reach the field level by Friday. The rest of the textbooks are expected to reach all educational institutions by January 15.
He noted that the textbook festival was not held in the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic. “But this year we will celebrate the day in a grand and festive atmosphere in every district and upazila.”
According to a letter from the Education Ministry, members of parliament and ministers have been asked to celebrate the festival in their respective districts.
