It has been 38 days since the classes of the new Higher Secondary Certificate (HSC) students started on July 1, but the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has yet to publish the textbooks.
The NCTB officials said the textbooks would be available by August 10, not doing much to assure the students and their guardians.
Many students have already acquired duplicate textbooks available in the market.
“I bought a textbook despite knowing it is a pirated one, as I had no other option,” said Fahim Ahmed, a newly admitted HSC student.
Around 1.3 million students passed the Secondary School Certificate examinations this year who are eligible for admission in the HSC class.
Though primary- and secondary-level students get textbooks free of cost, HSC students have to buy theirs. The NCTB only publishes Bangla, English and the supplementary books; the rest of the books are published by private publishers.
However, every year, the NCTB publishes HSC textbooks much later than the beginning of the new academic year.
Talking to the NCTB officials and publishers, the Dhaka Tribune has learned that a section of NCTB officials and the publishers are causing the delay.
The unavailability of NCTB books forces students to buy pirated books and guidebooks as substitute, which in turn benefit the private publishers.
“The publishers need only one or two months’ delay in the printing of HSC textbooks, because in that time they can easily sell their books and guidebooks,” said a former high official of the NCTB.
“As the textbooks are not distributed free of cost, guardians think it is better to buy the substitutes when they are available,” he added.
He said the NCTB incurred losses due to this as its textbooks remained shelved most of the time when they finally came out.
However, Abul Kashem Miah, chairman of the NCTB denied the allegation that a nexus of the NCTB officials and private publishers was delaying the printing of textbooks.
Talking about the delay, he said this year it was due to a case pending at court.
Asked why the NCTB is always late in printing HSC textbooks, he said the board always tried to deliver books on time but could not due to delay in receiving of manuscripts and other complications.
