A significant section of first to third graders across the country will not receive new textbooks on the first day of the New Year and will have to wait until Jan 20.
At least 28 per cent of the students of Class 1 to Class 3 will have to wait longer than others as the books will take longer to arrive at their destinations.
The delivery of textbooks for students from pre-primary, grade four and grade five will be delayed further. Secondary students will only receive textbooks for some subjects in the beginning of January.
Officials from the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) said that students of Class X would receive new textbooks in the first week of January.
However, the NCTB will publish all textbooks online on the first day of the New Year.
Textbooks from 27 of the 98 tenders handed out for printing textbooks will need additional time for delivery, NCTB Production Controller Abu Naser Tuku told bdnews24.com. Others will get the textbooks on the first day, he said.
"It will be delayed for the fourth grade, fifth grade and pre-primary students as well. However, we are trying our best to deliver the books as soon as possible."
NCTB officials promised to deliver all books to primary and secondary students by Jan 20.
"We'll publish the soft copies of 411 revised textbooks online on Jan 1," said NCTB Chairman Prof AKM Reazul Hasan.
"We'll be able to supply 75 percent of primary textbooks and 25 percent of secondary textbooks on the first day of the new year," said Sheikh Sirajuddin, managing director of "Letter and Colour", one of the companies which received the order to print textbooks.
"We're working to supply Bengali, English, and Maths books to the students of pre-primary, and fourth and fifth grades in all Upazilas by Jan 10. Books on other subjects for these grades will be available by Jan 20," NCTB Chairman AKM Reazul Hasan told bdnews24.com.
—bdnews24.com
