LAHORE: With the commencement of the new academic year in Punjab on Monday, the students across 48,000 schools in the province are facing textbooks shortage, which is hindering there learning process.

The Punjab Textbook Board is responsible for publishing and distributing free course books to schools ahead of the announcement of exam results.

However, this year, no school has received the textbooks required for the new academic year, making students to attend classes without the essential learning material.

This situation raises significant challenges for students and educators alike, highlighting the need for swift action to address the book distribution issue.

30pc of textbooks delivered to schools, claims minister

A teacher employed in a public school in the Lahore district told Dawn that most of the students couldn’t get the textbooks so far. “On the first day, many students had to attend classes without the textbooks,” he regretted.

On the issue of delay in the delivery of textbooks, Provincial Education Minister Rana Sikandar Hayat says that Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz has taken notice of the issue of delay in textbooks, claiming that this year the process of printing textbooks has been completed in four months instead of seven.

He said the chief minister had directed the officials concerned to ensure the supply of correctly published textbooks to all the students before the start of the academic session.

Mr Hayat said that in less than a month, 33 percent of the books were printed and 30pc of the distribution was completed.

The first phase of delivery of books has been completed on March 31, the second phase will be completed by April 20 and the third by May 20.

A total of 20 million textbooks were to be published for distribution in the schools of the province, out of which 7.5m books have been published, while 4.5m have been delivered to the districts, the minister said.

He said that last year the supply of the textbooks was delayed due to delay in tenders. In this regard, a report has been submitted to the chief minister, he added.

He added that the tenders for this session were completed before the current government took charge and the task of printing was assigned to the printing press on Feb 26.

He said the education department has been working diligently to rectify the situation and ensure that all students have the necessary resources for their studies.

Published in Dawn, April 2nd, 2024