KARACHI: STB fails to deliver books for new session
By Mukhtar Alam
KARACHI, July 25: While the teaching for the new academic session is scheduled to commence in early August, it is unlikely that textbooks in complete range will be available to students of XI and XII classes as the Sindh Textbook Board has failed to move in this regard on time.
Interviews with the quarters concerned have revealed that the delay is for two reasons. First the board has no full-time chairman. Second, the curriculum wing of the ministry of education, Islamabad, has not approved the manuscripts of some college science books which the board has planned to introduce this year.
Textbook wholesalers are approaching private publishers normally engaged by the STB for printing and release of books in the market, but they have nothing to offer to wholesalers. Till date the Textbook Board has not sanctioned the printing and it is certain that college books will not be available to students at least during August,
“Under the routine process, the allocation of books is made to publishers, following which the publishers pay royalty on the books to the STB, which finally deliver the manuscripts of books to them. After receiving the print orders from the board, publishers purchase the printing paper from the board on cash payment and then start printing”, explained a veteran book publisher saying that if things went in the right direction, normally it took six to eight weeks to prepare the books.
“Allocation and printing of books through private publishers or through its own press or sources is done every year by the STB, but the authorities fail to meet the deadline almost every year”, said a wholesaler, adding that wholesalers had to ensure the supply of books to retailers on time.
A bookseller at Urdu Bazar said the previous stock of books was not adequate to meet the requirement of students at the beginning of the academic session, and ultimately students had to either rely on old books from secondhand book dealers or photocopies.
Colleges are likely to start first their second-year classes as the students who have already appeared in the HSC part-I examinations will be available from August 1. First-year classes will start after new admissions which the authorities intend to get completed in a three weeks time.
“In the given circumstances it can be said that books for over 0.12 million students of first and second years in the Science, Commerce and Humanities faculties would be available in complete range only after mid-September, provided the STB acts now”, said an STB source.
Market sources maintain that the acting chairman of the board is not showing interest in the issue. “He can make allocations as was done last year since the there is no change in the list of books”, said a publisher, adding that the acting chairman could pick up the thread as it was and where it was, otherwise it would be too late and students would have to suffer a lot academically.
The sources in the board said that under a federal government policy new textbooks on Physics, Chemistry, Biology and Mathematics of class XI were to be introduced throughout the country this year and the biology book had been forwarded to the curriculum wing Islamabad for review and approval.
“However, the Islamabad authorities, it seems, have sat on the manuscript, otherwise we would have been able to give printing order for the biology book at least. The manuscript in question was sent to Islamabad a couple of weeks back”, added the sources, saying that if every thing went well and the STB was provided with the approved manuscript in the shortest possible time, the board would be able to bring the new biology book in the market latest by September 1.
The sources blamed the functionaries in the board also for delay in the shaping up of the new books and confided that if the approval in the case of new books was not accorded latest by August then the STB would have to do with the old textbooks of class XI Science and order their printing and publication.
Regarding the allocation and printing of books an official admitted that the matter had bee delayed, only because the acting chairman, who is not desirous of continuing his service, wished to leave the job to the new chairman.
“Uncertainty prevails in the STB, particularly in the absence of a regular chairman. A regular chairman has been named but when he will join is not known”, a source said.
