Two government primary schools in Mymensingh’s Gafargaon upazila allegedly charged students as much as Tk500 for distributing free textbooks yesterday.
Several students said they had to return home empty-handed as they failed to pay the fees.
Ashraful and Siyam, grade II students at Rouha Government Primary School alleged that their teachers had charged them Tk70 each for sports function.
They said as they had failed to pay the sum, the school authorities did not provide them with textbooks.
Grade IV student Rasel and grade II student Asadul claimed that they were initially denied books as they did not have money.
They said they were given the textbooks only after they paid the Tk70 fee.
It was the same at Charamchhalanda Girls High School where students were allegedly charged between Tk400 and Tk500.
But both schools denied the charges.
The government started distributing textbooks among primary students for free in 1981. It has been giving out textbooks for free at secondary schools since 2010.
Acting headmistress of Rouha Government Primary School Khudista Khuki said they had charged money for sports festival, not for textbooks.
Charamchhalanda Girls High School’s Headmaster Mahbub Alam said they had charged several students admission fee.
Gafargaon Upazila’s Assistant Education Officer Nazmul Huda said schools were not allowed to charge fees for textbooks.
“They cannot charge fee for sports events on the Textbook Festival Day,” he said.
Upazila’s Secondary Education Officer Belayet Hossain said he was unaware of such incidents.
The government aims to distribute 333,762,760 textbooks among 44,416,728 students of pre-primary to secondary level for 2016 academic session.