ISLAMABAD: While the new academic session in schools is set to begin from April 14, the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) is yet to arrange free of cost textbooks for the students in primary, middle and secondary schools in the capital city.

Officials in the FDE said authors of the textbooks had obtained a stay order making it impossible to print the textbooks and distribute them among the students free of cost.

In the meantime, the managements of around 400 schools have instructed their students, who have been promoted to next grades, to hand over the old books to their teachers so that these could be given to the newcomers.

It may be mentioned that in 2003 the government decided to provide free of cost textbooks to the students from class I to 10.

To ensure that the textbooks reached the students before the start of the new academic session every year, the sale of books in the open market was banned in 2003.

The government claimed that the textbooks would be provided to the schools at the start of educational year. Till 2007 books were provided to the educational institutions through the National Book Foundation (NBF) on time but after that the delivery got delayed every year due to one reason or the other.

The provision of free books to the students became binding on the educational institutions as under Article 25-A education was made free up to class 10.

However, for the last six years, it has been observed that though academic year starts in March books are provided to the students not before the summer vacations.

An officer of the Capital Administration and Development Division (CADD) requesting not to be identified told Dawn that because of the instructions issued by the Accountant General of Pakistan Revenue (AGPR) in October 2013, it was decided that the textbooks for schools would be selected through tenders after which the NBF would be directed to print them.

“The NBF objected to the decision and claimed that it was working as a textbook board so it had the right to choose and arrange the books. Moreover, the foundation also maintained that books of social studies, general knowledge and languages should be local. For example, in English of class II, there are subjects about Rose and Jasmine Garden and the G-6 sector of Islamabad,” he said.

After the AGPR direction, 25 authors of the textbooks approached the Islamabad High Court (IHC) in October 2013 and obtained a stay order against the selection of books through tenders, he said.

The FDE officer said because of the stay it had become impossible for them to provide books to the students on time.

“We have instructed the managements of schools to ask the students who have been promoted to the next grades to deposit the old books in the schools, so that it could be given to the newcomers,” he said.

Mohammad Tahir Hassan, one of the authors, who retired as a professor from Gordon College Rawalpindi, told Dawn that they approached the court because they felt that the decision to select the textbooks through tenders was not fair.

“I have been writing books since 1995 for schools and colleges. The curriculum wing takes almost two years to approve my book. It asks for changing the topics, pictures and even characters of the stories. But within days CADD selected books of different publishers due to which we had no choice but to obtain the stay,” he said.

Another official of the FDE said in 2013-14 yearbooks worth Rs120 million were distributed among the students and in the academic year 2014-15 Rs130 million would be spent on supplying students to the students.

“Both the managements of CADD and the NBF want to get control of the amount. However, because of their wrangling over 200,000 students in the federal capital are suffering,” he said.

Every year, the foundation prints 67 titles through its registered printers; 37 titles are provided by the Punjab Textbook Board and over 10 by private publishers, he said.

When contacted, Joint Secretary CADD Rafique Tahir said because of the stay order the delivery of books to students had become a problem.

“We cannot move an inch because of the court orders. As an alternative arrangement, we have instructed the school managements to get the old books from students and give them to the newcomers. Moreover, we have some books in the stock which will be given to the students,” he said.

“The AGPR has also now allowed us to purchase the books from the NBF. So we have been trying to vacate stay order,” he said.

Mr Tahir added that as soon as the stay order would be vacated, the printing of the textbooks would be started.

In the first phase, books of compulsory subjects such as mathematics, science, English and Urdu will be printed.

Secretary NBF Aftab Soomro while talking to Dawn said he had been informed by CADD that the AGPR had issued NOC that books can be purchased from the NBF without floating tenders.

“The foundation will also talk to the authors and hopefully the stay will be vacated within a few days.”

He said the books for IX and X classes were ready to be printed and the printing process can be started within three days after the vacation of the stay order.

In reply to a question, Mr Soomro said it would take almost 40 days to complete the printing of the textbooks.