negligence of previous government; Half of the session has passed, students of Sindh are facing shortage of 2 million books

Karachi: Due to the poor strategy and lack of planning in the education sector of the former Sindh government, lakhs of government schools will spend half of the academic session with severe lack of textbooks and the students will not be able to get the required number of textbooks for almost half of the academic session.

The public schools of Sindh are currently facing a shortage of 2 million (20 lakh) textbooks, of which there is a shortage of more than 235,000 books and sets of textbooks at the public school level in Karachi alone, while in the whole of Sindh This number is several lakhs due to which teaching activities in schools are severely affected and students do not have books of various subjects to read due to which they are facing disruption in teaching.

The issue of shortage of textbooks has come at a time when enrollment in government schools in Sindh has recorded a rise due to severe inflation and other reasons and a large number of students have switched from private to government schools and secretary schools. Along with education, the Director of Secondary Schools Karachi has also confirmed this increase, but due to the previous government’s lack of interest in the education sector, the number of textbooks has increased instead of increasing the number of students.

On the other hand, recently the current caretaker government has released funds of 1 billion rupees for the printing of books after the issue of severe shortage of textbooks in public schools has come to light, but it takes about a month to print these books.

The publishers say that even if it is possible very soon, these books will be able to reach the schools by the end of November or it may be even further than that. He informed that orders have been issued to various publishers in the last week of October for the printing of more textbooks. These books are of various subjects from printing to handing them over to the Sindh Textbook Board for distribution to their schools. The series will begin.”

It should be noted that the work of distributing textbooks is itself a multi-day exercise. These books are first delivered to the godowns and warehouses of the Sindh Textbook Board, from where the books are distributed to the schools on a district basis. It is being said that the short fall of government school books will barely be met by the end of November or the beginning of December, while the steering committee of the education department itself has proposed to start the new academic session 2024/25 from April 1 in Sindh. And the exam dates are given in April 2024 itself.

In such a case, the current academic session 2023/24 will end in March 2024 next year and practically this session will be 8 months in which a large number of students will not have textbooks till the fourth month of the session.

In this regard, “Express” contacted Secretary School Education Sindh Shireen Narejo and asked who is ultimately responsible for this whole situation, to which she said that the order was given less at the time of printing because the government did not have funds at that time. On a question, he said that during the previous government, when the textbooks were being printed, the value of the dollar had increased and the paper had become very expensive, so the order for the printing of books was given on a limited scale. However, now the Chief Minister of Sindh has issued a notice and we have issued an order to print the books. School Education Akbar Laghari and Sindh Textbook Board Chairman Pervez Baloch.

It should be noted that according to the data received by “Express” from the Department of School Education regarding the shortage of textbooks in Karachi, there are more than 112,000 at the primary level and more than 122,000 at the secondary level. There is a shortage of books in which textbooks of English, General Knowledge, Mathematics, Sindhi Reader, Easy Urdu, Science, Social Sciences, Islamiat and Computer subjects are not available to a large number of students.

The data received from the primary schools shows that on the basis of the classes, as many sets of books of different subjects were demanded from the Sindh Textbook, in most of the classes, 50% or less than the demand of textbooks have been provided. It is estimated that around 50 percent of the students in each class are without books, but an education officer here says that this figure is in line with the registered enrollment and that attendance in government schools would normally be up to 70 percent of the enrollment. So we have requested the Sindh Textbook Board to give us 20% more books so that this short fall ends.
In addition, when contacted, the principal of a primary school in Karachi said, “There are problems due to the lack of books. We ask the children to share the books and in the class, work is done temporarily on the basis of sharing, but the students have to go home.” I also have to study. We cannot tell the student that some parents do their own photocopying of the book, but their number can be counted on the fingers.
On the issue of non-availability of books, Dr. Muhammad Ali Shaikh, an educationist and former vice-chancellor of Sindh Madrasa al-Salam and former chairman of Sindh Textbook Board, says, “It has become a matter of every year, a contract worth 3 billion The reasons are people’s interests and later our children suffer hardships. Now the caretaker chief minister should have courage to form an impartial committee and conduct an investigation. After all, who is responsible? Chairman Sindh Textbook Board or Secretary Education. He said, “I think this is the primary responsibility of the Chairman, Sindh Textbook Board.”
Moreover, when Agha Sohail Pathan, the current chairman of Sindh Textbook Board was asked about this situation, he claimed that the books will be printed in a phased manner from November 10. A work order was given for the printing of 100% textbooks, the cost of which is 1 billion 80 crore rupees. The students of our province are suffering the consequences of this decision. 20 percent of the books sent for publication number 2 million”.