September 17, 2006

IN a country like Pakistan, where teaching from books to students forms an integral part of the educational system, the textbook plays a significant role unlike developed countries where education is not merely imparted through books. Thus, a shortage of textbooks, or their unavailability for that matter, at the start of each academic year does not bode well for both students and teachers. This year was no different as at the beginning of the school year, many students in Karachi found themselves without their prescribed course books which were, according to shopkeepers, unavailable in the market. This was despite the fact that there was an extended summer break this time around. Of course, the Sindh provincial government did make tall claims about the distribution of free textbooks among students of public sector schools in order to alleviate the sufferings of parents. The ground reality, however, was entirely different — students of both government and private schools had to go attend classes without books owing to their unavailability.

In a majority of private institutes, textbooks along with notebooks and various items of stationary are supplied by the school administration to the booksellers of their choice. This forces parents to buy textbooks from those stores meaning that there are only a few bookshops that have the prescribed course books. This in turn means that there is a great demand which booksellers are often unable to meet, resulting in a do-or-die situation for both parents and students. Commenting on the situation, Wajid Ali, a father of a school-going child said: “Every year we have to rush to these shops, which are far from our houses, a few months in advance to buy these books.” He added that since shopkeepers and schools monopolise the situation, the situation becomes worse each year.

Many schools have started a new racket in this regard. The syllabi now contain different books for the first and second half of the school year and so parents have no choice but to go to these shops all the year round. What’s worse is the fact that teachers keep sending notes to parents to buy course books for their children. A group of frustrated mothers who were found struggling to buy books at a local store a few months ago had much to say on the subject: “Teachers do not realise the problems we face and send notes every second day,” fumed one mother. In fact, many teachers begin teaching whether or not the children have the books in hand which puts a lot of pressure on children and parents.

Nabeela Kanwal, the headmistress of an English medium school, has a different story to tell, however. “Our syllabi can only be taught through our books written for our children by our own people.” According to Kanwal, the school does not want parents to be exploited at the hands of the book mafia and this is why her school publishes books on their own. Ironically, it is these very schools now who are exploiting parents.

It is important to note that one of the reasons for this crisis is the frequent change in syllabi. Parents are not informed and a new set of books arrive with a new syllabus every year, rendering the books used in the previous years useless. “Every year, there is a new book. If the school library happens to have a copy they do not allow children to make photocopies,” said a mother whose children go to a private school. These new editions of books have added to the misery of parents as well as students as teachers are only willing to allow students in class if they have the new edition. Commenting on this trend, Sabreena S. Bhaidani, a student of class eight says that by and large “90-95 per cent of the content in both the old and new edition is the same but they are discarded just because school authorities force students to use the new editions”. More often than not, these new editions merely mean the addition of a few pictures or illustrations, a different cover or a revamped layout. In fact, Mrs Khan, a veteran teacher and syllabus designer says that new books aren’t really needed every year. Students can just be given supplementary notes if there is some significant change instead of discarding the book altogether.

The situation becomes worse in schools where the books published by the Sindh Textbook Board (STB) are part of the prescribed syllabi. The Board’s policy for awarding publishing rights has come under severe criticism this year, particularly because of its failure to meet the demands of schools along with their deadlines. “It is an extremely centralised system of book distribution and a very old and tedious one at that,” said an Urdu Bazaar publisher.

The system works like this: The STB publishes textbooks which are then taken to warehouses of STB in Sindh in Jamshoro and Karachi. From there, the school principals collect books according to their convenience. The principals take these books to their respective zones and to the school teachers and they are finally distributed to students after considerably delays. At times, students get to see the textbook a few days before the exam. Mrs Sajid Inam, headmistress of a public sector school says “it is the job of headmistresses to collect this bulk of free books from the education officers. We do not get any logistic support. We hire trucks and bring books from these education officers who show attitude to us rather than helping us to count and load these books.”

This non-availability of books hampers the process of learning. Teachers are pressured by stakeholders and parents to complete the syllabus within the given time frame. Since completing the course plan is of paramount importance (which also means finishing the entire book), learning hardly remains the focus of teaching. According to Rubina Rasheed, a senior public school teacher, “It is impossible to teach without textbooks. Learning means reading the textbook in public sector schools at least.”

Reflecting on the crisis, Arjumand Ara, headmistress of a public school says “The text book issue has become worse ever since the government started its scheme of distributing free books to justify to its donor agency, the World Bank, the asking of loans for the spread of education and to raise the standard of education.” Ara explains that approximately four years ago, classes one to eight were given free books but now, classes nine and ten have also been included in this scheme. This hasn’t really helped because in some schools, these free books have arrived only twice in four years. Some students received books in November, seven months after the beginning of the school year in April.

There are very few parents who have never had to face any problem acquiring textbooks for their children because their children, in all likelihood, go to schools who distribute these textbooks themselves. In turn, students have to pay a monthly fee (kind of like rent) to schools for the usage of these books which must be returned at the end of school year. Mehnaz Hanzala, whose children go to one such school, says: “This system saves parents from a lot of trouble.”

Thus, what is required is planning and transparency in the policy of awarding publishing rights to publishers. We need more publishers, rather than a select few, which will streamline the entire process of textbook collection and distribution. n

The writer is a senior English language instructor

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