PESHAWAR: The cash-strapped Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government has decided to reduce the size of textbooks and provide half of the schoolchildren with old course books hoping the exercise will save over Rs3 billion for printing books.

The decision was made in the last cabinet meeting, according to officials.

They told Dawn that in the last three years, the provincial government didn’t release the funds required by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board to publish course books due to financial constraints.

The officials said the government provided books to the students of its schools free of charge.

They said the printing of books in the upcoming academic year 2023-24 was likely to cost Rs8.528 billion but the amount will go down to Rs5.247 billion by cutting the size of textbooks and providing 50 per cent of schoolchildren with the books that were collected from the students after their promotion to next grades.

Hopes move will save over Rs3bn for printing books

The official documents show that the 6-12 graders would utilise 50 per cent of old books to be collected by schools from students promoted to next grades.

Only the books in good condition will be given away to students with the move saving the government Rs1.8 billion, according to the documents.

The students of grade 4-5 will use 20 per cent of the old books saving the government Rs334 million.

Officials told Dawn that besides reducing textbook size, the government had also decided to reduce the size of nursery-grade 12 course books leading to a government saving of Rs1.11 billion.

Sources in the education department insisted that the government’s decision violated the standard textbook size set by the Single National Curriculum introduced by the last Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf government led by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

They, however, said the move to downsize textbooks and distribute old books to schoolchildren came “under compulsion” as the finance department didn’t release funds for printing textbooks to the board on time.

Officials in the textbook board told Dawn that private companies printed books for the academic year 2022-23 at a cost of Rs10 billion but the provincial government made payments to them in piecemeal.

They said though the board had started bidding for books printing for the next year, the finance department hadn’t made full payment to publishers for the work they did last year. The officials said out of Rs10 billion cost of printing books last year, the finance department had so far released Rs8 billion.

The officials said the delay in the release of funds had disillusioned printers, who were no longer taking interest in the textbook printing bidding for the next academic year slated to start in April 2024.

They said the textbook floated a tender in Oct last year for books printing but no printers submitted proposals fearing that the cash-strapped KP government won’t be able to pay them for printing books.

The officials said they extended the tender date time and again, but in vain.

They said they floated the tender for the second time and its opening date was fixed on Dec 13 but no one among the printers turned up and the textbook board was compelled to extend its opening to Dec 20. They said that the bidding process was in progress.

Sources feared a two months learning loss for schoolchildren in the next academic year saying the publishers won’t be able to deliver orders by the end of May.

Published in Dawn, January 3rd, 2024