Enthusiastic pre-primary, primary, and secondary school students of Bangladesh all got their hands on free textbooks after attending the National Textbook Festival on Sunday, the first day of the new year.
The textbook festival was not held in the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
In Gazipur, beaming students were seen going to schools with a spring in their step despite the morning chill. Many of them immediately began riffling through the books after receiving them at Kapasia Government Pilot High School.
The Ministry of Education and the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education jointly organized the book festival. On the first day of the festival yesterday, new books were handed over to 6,000 students of 31 schools and six madrasas in Kapasia upazila of Gazipur.
Education Minister Dipu Moni was present as the chief guest at the Kapasia Government Pilot High School Ground.
“My daughter was preparing for the new books since last night. She even woke up early to go to the school,” said Shiril Shila, mother of Nishat Tabassum -- a student of Kapasia Government Pilot High School.
Meanwhile, eighth-grader Preeti Sarkar was seen looking at the colourful pages of the new textbooks.
Her mother, Parbati Sarkar, said: “I cannot express my happiness as a parent. I am very satisfied.”
Dhaka TribuneShe also mentioned how no one can truly understand a student's joy when they receive their books on the first day of the new year.
Gazipur Deputy Commissioner (DC) Anisur Rahman said 612,351 students from grades I-V will receive a total of 2,540,234 books, and 692,730 students from grades VI-X will receive 8,776,689 books.
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.
The government plans 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 formally inaugurated the distribution of books from her office on Friday. A student from each class received a complete set of textbooks from the premier on the day.
The government has also printed 212,178 copies of textbooks in the mother tongues of minority ethnic groups, according to NCTB.