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| April 30, 2003 | Wednesday | Safar 27, 1424 |
Textbooks shortage: FBISE, FDE make students suffer
ISLAMABAD, April 29: The shortage of textbooks in the local market has created a dilemma for students, especially those of class IX, as the new academic session has already started.
On March 26, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) had issued a directive to all principals of the Islamabad Model Colleges that their students should buy science books (including Chemistry and Biology) developed by the National Institute of Science and Technical Education (NISTE) and published by the National Book Foundation (NBF).
This prompted the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE) to notify on April 1, 2003, (at the beginning of the new session) that it had prescribed only those revised syllabi of Urdu compulsory, English compulsory, Chemistry and Biology for class IX which were published by the Punjab Textbook Board, Lahore. The NBF’s only General Science and Computer Science books were prescribed.
The FBISE also made it clear that the annual examination 2004 for class-IX would be conducted under the revised syllabi.
In response to the FBISE notification, the FDE again issued a directive on April 22 stating that the education ministry had extended the academic session from 2002-04 to 2003-05, during which the textbooks of the Punjab Textbook Board had to be prescribed; thus the books of the NBF should be purchased from the market.
It was also being speculated that the decision to prescribe NBF books was aimed to favour the foundation as its books were still in the market in a large quantity.
The FBISE on the other hand refused to acknowledge the directive of the FDE on the ground that it had no authority to prescribe books and that the revised textbooks had already been approved by the curriculum wing of the education ministry.
A senior official of the board on condition of anonymity told Dawn that the FBISE had already informed the education ministry about its stand, clarifying the position that only the board was authorized to decide about the syllabi and it had already made a decision to this affect.
A meeting was also held with the curriculum wing which remained inconclusive due to the strong stand taken by the FBISE.
However, the same official admitted the shortage of textbooks in the market but said that it had uploaded the first four chapters of all the books on the website for the convenience of the students. But, then, every student does not have the access to computer or the internet. Even the majority of the federal government schools do not have computer laboratories.
However, the official clarified that the notification of the FBISE, prescribing books of the Punjab Textbook Board, held the field.
“We have provided photocopies of the syllabus to our students because the books are not available in the market,” said Shaista Pirzada, Principal of Islamabad Model College for Girls, F-10/2.
A bookseller said he had been facing problem since the brunt of the parents had to be faced by booksellers due to the shortage of books.
“We received only five books after waiting for hours in long queues, while we had booked our demand for 500 books,” he said.
Mohammad Amin, a wholesaler in Urdu Bazaar, Rawalpindi, criticized the Punjab Textbooks Board, Lahore, saying they did not have the idea as to how much books they should publish.
“The shortage is bound to occur due to the fact that the board prints only 200,000 books while the actual demand is for two million,” he said.
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