SWABI: Unavailability of textbooks of 10th class of schools affiliated with the Federal Board of Intermediate and Secondary Education (FBISE), Islamabad, has resulted in problems for the students here as the new academic session has already started.

Several teachers and students in Swabi told this correspondent that classes of grade-10 students had started on April 18 because they wanted to cover some course before the start of summer vacation.

They said that the problem was that the students could not use old books because of the change in syllabus. They said that the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) usually issued directives to all school principals affiliated with the board that their students should buy recommended books.

They said that the revised syllabus had also been notified to the affiliated institutions.

A teacher, Hamid Khan, said that the new Urdu book acquired by a few students showed that two new chapters had been added. The teachers said that the new books of chemistry, biology, physics, mathematics and English were not available in the market due to unknown reasons.

The students said that whenever they visited the bookstores the owners would say that new courses would arrive shortly.

When contacted, owner of Asim Bookstore in Topi main market said that they could not say anything about availability of the books. “Shortage of books is bound to occur due to the failure of officials concerned to educate the publishers about the required number of books,” said Asim Tahir. He said that he had visited Rawalpindi thrice to acquire the books, but each time he returned empty handed.

The students said that books of Punjab Textbook Board should be bought from the market. When contacted, an official of the board said that all the books would be made available in the market within next few days and the students and parents should not worry about it.

Meanwhile, the heads of government schools affiliated with the BISE, Mardan, said that they had completed the free distribution of books among the students.

Published in Dawn, April 29th, 2016