There is a fear of textbook crisis in the upcoming academic session in Sindh

Karachi: There is a fear of textbook crisis in the upcoming academic session in Sindh as well.

According to reports, the tender for the printing of free textbooks in government schools for the new academic session 2024 has been issued without any increase in the allocated budget despite a sharp increase in the price of paper, which once again makes it highly likely that the current As in the first six months of the session, in the upcoming academic session 2024, the required number of textbooks will not be available to the students of government schools in Sindh, which will directly affect the performance of the students.

Secretary Sindh Textbook Board has announced through an advertisement in the publication of local newspaper on February 22 that the budget allocated for (printing, binding and supply of free books) for the academic session 2024/25 is 2530 million rupees i.e. ( 2 billion 53 crores) is Rs. Apparently, the number of books is not specified in this advertisement, while apparently no increase in the budget is included, which is feared that if this situation continues, there will be a crisis of textbooks in Sindh due to the high cost of paper due to the high dollar. Will continue in 2024/25.

Meanwhile, with the approval of the caretaker Chief Minister of Sindh on February 22, grade 20 officer Abdul Aleem Lashari was appointed as the Chairman of the Sindh Textbook Board and withdrew the charge of this position from the current Chairman, Akhtar Hussain Bugti.

It should be remembered that in Sindh, due to not providing textbooks on time, the students of schools as well as colleges are also affected and in the recent results of the first inter-year in Karachi, the reason for the failure of a large number of students was attributed to the non-availability of books. The reason has also been made a part of the official report of the Fact Finding Committee of the Government of Sindh.

The disappearance of books at the beginning of the session and the timely availability of books in Sindh have been ongoing for the past several years and this continuous crisis reached its peak in the current academic session when 20 lakh students in the government schools of Sindh were deprived of 2 million students in the first four months of the session. There was a shortage of textbooks up to the number of

After two consecutive cancellations by the Sindh Textbook Board, the tender has been issued in connection with the printing of books, in which the budget amount has not been increased. This amount is around two and a half billion. In Pakistan, before the high flight of the dollar, 3 crore textbooks distributed free of charge to the students of Sindh government schools were printed with this money, however, due to the price of the dollar being around 300 rupees, the cost of printing books was 160 per kilo of paper. Available in rupees increased to 260 rupees and paper became expensive by 60%.

Similarly, the card sheet and binding glue used for book covers have also become expensive as all these materials are also imported for the production of textbooks. Despite the increase in the cost of paper and other essentials, the Education Department of the Sindh government has not increased the budget allocated for the printing of books, while the recently issued tender has kept the number of books as required, which is similar to last year. Even the required number of books will not be printed and reach the schools in time.

Sources say that the former caretaker government did not pay attention to the fact that due to the increase in the value of the dollar against the rupee, paper has become very expensive and the amount allocated for printing textbooks will be very insufficient and these books will not be printed in the required number. Karmaft may not be available in the market for distribution to government schools or private school colleges.