KARACHI: Textbooks printing in jeopardy: Resignation by STB chief
By Arman Sabir
KARACHI, April 9: The crisis in the Sindh Textbook Board has deepened and led to an inordinate delay in initiating the process of procuring paper for printing textbooks for the upcoming academic session starting from August 15 this year.
The wrangling within the department may lead to further delay in allocation and procuring of paper due to which children may start their session without textbooks this year across the province as the provincial government distribute textbooks to pupils in public sector schools across the province free of cost.
The crisis intensified when the STB acting chairman, Mazhar Ali Siddiqui, relinquished charge. Mr Siddiqui, Director (Planning & Development) Education and Literacy Department, was given the additional charge on February 25, reliable sources in education department told Dawn here on Monday.
His predecessor, Dr Mohammad Ali Shaikh, who is Provincial Manager (Colleges), was also acting Chairman of STB, who was relieved of additional charge on February 25 by the education secretary.
Sources said why Mr Siddiqui tendered his resignation as Chairman STB could not be known but he might have relinquished charge as there are reports procurement of paper was being made in violation of rules and regulations.
Besides, the post of the STB Chairman is in grade 20, and Mr Siddiqui is a grade 19 officer, and he might be unwilling to take decisions that could create legal problems for him in future and bring him a bad name.
Earlier, his predecessor while reviewing the proposal of importing printed books from abroad instead of procuring paper and getting them printed locally could not sustain the pressure from certain quarters and he had to relinquish charge.
In mid March, the provincial education minister presided over a meeting directed the STB to take a final decision for the purchase of paper for printing of textbooks on time.
The meeting focussed on the procedure of implementation of new curriculum for English and Urdu for classes one and six, Mathematics of classes one and six, and Islamiat of classes one, three and four, and Science of classes four and six.
The publishers were given a March 31 deadline to prepare specimen books for the specified subjects and submitted them to the Education Department. However, some books of Sindhi language in the curriculum were being printed through publishers without meeting requirements and rules, the sources said.
They said the books are distributed before the academic session begins on August 15. Sources said printers and publishers of textbooks usually seek three months time to print the books and distribution generally starts in July.
