The government distributes new books among primary and secondary level students at the beginning of every year free of cost. Though state expenditure increases over the years, the quality of books is declining due to various reasons.
Owing to poor printing and binding quality, the pages of many books have fallen out before the academic year ends, said students, teachers and guardians.
According to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the allocation for new books for primary students in 2022 was Tk 177 crore, which increased to Tk 269 crore in 2023. It is learnt that the allocation in 2024 is Tk 406 crore.
It means that expenditure on only primary books has increased by Tk 229 crore in three years.
The owners of printing houses told The Business Post that the amount of money has increased due to a rise in prices of paper and raw materials as well as inflation. To get the book printing tender done at less than the estimated price, the quality is deteriorating.
In addition, the quality of books cannot be maintained due to lack of inspection, accountability and visible action against the printing presses, they added.
The inspection team plays a key role in maintaining the quality of textbooks, said insiders. For that the ministry concerned has formed three-tiered inspection team.
The team of Directorate of Primary Education for primary, National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) team and private independent team inspected secondary level books.
A group of NCTB officials and printing owners claimed that poor quality books were approved due to inspectors' irregularities.
NCTB Chairman Farhadul Islam said that third-party inspectors are mainly responsible for the poor quality of books. The number of independent quality inspection agency in the country is less. But most of them are in the list of loan defaulters.
“Those whom we trust are corrupt and big fish. We would like to contact with Bangladesh Standards and Testing Institution (BSTI) or Science Lab for quality control of books,” he said.
The compliments of the students’ parents and teachers have been going on for a long time. They said that it is not possible to run a year with the books distributed among the students this year. Many books have got opened. But initially, there were no major complaints about the printing quality, images and paper of free books provided by the government.
This time, printing press owners have demanded 35 per cent less than the estimated price to get the work of printing textbooks. There are also allegations of taking more work orders by showing the extra printing capacity.
As a result, low quality textbooks will be printed at low cost, and there is also a question whether timely delivery will be possible due to additional work involved.
Bangladesh Printing Industry Association President Shahid Serniabat told The Business Post that there is an obligation of 80 grams of paperweight for each book in the tender, but the books are printed between 50 and 60 grams.
“Those who did it last time, they are bidding 30 to 38 per cent less this year. I am sure they will provide low quality books,” he said.
Requesting anonymity, a senior NCTB officer said the books given for quality check are of good but they finally supply low quality books. That means the book quality is good in the notebook, but it is not reality. As a result, it is not possible to take action against the printing houses.
According to the ministry of primary education, this year printing of textbooks for pre-primary, class I, IV and V has started. The tenders have been invited for printing textbooks for class II, III, VI and VII. Apart from this, evaluation and tender of class VIII books has been given. Class IX book writing is over.
It is known that the printing work is a bit slow at present, but the printing of books will start in full swing this week.
This year, the authority set a target of printing around 34 crore books for primary, secondary and equivalent students across the country. The total allocation for these books is more than Tk 1,500 crore.
Of the total, about Tk 1,100 crore has been allocated for 23.5 crore secondary school books while Tk 406 crore allocated for about 10 crore primary books.
