The process to distribute free textbooks among students on the second day of the upcoming year is on, said Shahid Serniabat, president of Bangladesh Mudran Shilpa Samity (BMSS).
Subodh Chandra Dhali, deputy secretary of the Education Ministry, said Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina would inaugurate the distribution of new books after the results of the Primary School Certificate, Junior School Certificate and equivalent examinations are published on December 31.
The BMSS president said December 28 is the deadline for sending new books to districts across the country.
“Primary textbooks have reached 70% of the upazilas while it is 96% for secondary textbooks. We are optimistic that students will receive textbooks on schedule,” he said.
In 2010, the government began distributing free textbooks among students of up to the secondary level. It takes 130 days to print textbooks from the day when the official letter regarding this is issued by the National Curriculum and Textbook Board.
Because of a conflict between the World Bank and publishers over book printing this year, officials were worried that book printing would be delayed.
Primary textbook publishers stopped printing books after the World Bank set some conditions, but they later resumed the process after the global financial institution withdrew some of the conditions.
The government plans to deliver around 350 million new textbooks among primary and secondary students across the country.