January 09, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 29, 1428

KARACHI, Jan 8: The Sindh Textbook Board, which does not enjoy a very good track record as far as timely publication of textbooks is concerned, is once again begging for extra time on a plea that the law and order situation hampered its efforts towards accomplishing the task.

The board particularly mentioned the arson incidents in Jamshoro and Hyderabad where its properties were burnt by miscreants on December 28, 2007, sources in the provincial education department said on Tuesday.

The plea taken by STB officials that the situation appeared not conducive to textbook printing has disturbed education department high-ups who had lately decided to revert to the old academic session beginning from April 1 instead of August 16.

An official of the education department apprehended that any slackness on the issue of textbook publication was bound to affect the bold step taken by the caretaker set-up for reverting to the old system on requests of parents and private schools management association.

However, a source privy to textbook publication said that the target of bringing books in market before the commencement of new academic session (i.e. April 1) was attainable if staff and publishers were motivated and relevant policies were implemented on a war-footing basis.

According to the reported damages done to the STB properties in Hyderabad and Jamshoro, administration section was burnt to ashes and as such service record of about 135 staff could not be recovered. Besides, book warehouse and library were partially damaged while accounts and editorial sections were almost intact, sources said.

To assess the damages done to the board properties during violence and its impact on the publication of textbooks, the education secretary and some high officials of the department have been directed to visit STB head offices in Hyderabad.

No new edition

Sources rejecting the law and order plea taken by the board officials said that there was hardly any need of fresh films of text matters and titles for the printing this year since no new title (edition) would be introduced for the new academic session. Even after the disturbances, textbooks could be printed with the previous films and plates, the sources added.

Under an earlier plan new textbooks for Class I and VI students were to be printed in line with the fresh education policy of federal ministry but that could not be implemented as the ministry did not issue an NOC required for preparation of manuscripts of new books.

Purchase of paper

The foremost requirement to expedite the publication process is the immediate purchase and supply of printing paper worth about Rs800 million. The tendering has already been over and now order can be placed by meeting the remaining pre-requisites on priority basis.

In order to save time the relevant publishers could share the composed copies of textbooks, besides the government could bring in some new publishers so that the challenging task could be completed on time and further rescheduling of academic session could be avoided.

Since the STB printing machines had stopped functioning over five years ago and the board had been relying on printers and publishers in private sector for the publication of textbooks, the reported damages to the board’s assets would not hamper the printing process, sources observed.

Meeting planned

When contacted, Education Minister Shujaat Ali Beg agreed that motivated staffs and an increase in number of printers could help overcome the situation. He said that he had already started consulting officials concerned on the issue. In this respect, he said, a meeting of the stakeholders would be held very soon to reach a consensus decision.

Keeping in view the past practices of the STB and publishers, market sources said that the commencement of academic session from April was a good decision because publishers used to cite power breakdowns in June and July as the reason for the delay in publication of books.

A dealer in Urdu Bazaar suggested that textbooks for students of government schools and those for private school children be brought in market simultaneously in order to avoid any confusion and ensure smooth flow of books. He apprehended that any advancement in the printing deadline may cause delay in distribution of free distribution books due to commencement of monsoon, which had been a routine matter in the past as well.

Happy with the latest change in academic session, the parents of school-goers said that the session must start in April. They said that in the worst scenario STB and publishers be allowed two more weeks to complete the task so that the session could start by the mid of April.