KARACHI, April 27: Despite a lapse of considerable time, the Sindh Textbook Board is failing to give any fresh date for supply of textbooks meant for free distribution among 2.8 million students of government primary schools , whose academic session commenced on April 1.

Parents and academicians believe that it was height of the Sindh government's apathy towards primary school students that none of its functionaries has come up with any convincing explanation on the issue so far.

Instead of addressing the problem on war footings, the authorities were showing indifference to the situation, a number of parents alleged, whose wards were without books. They demanded for a high-level body, which could not only expedite the book supply, but also identify the elements involved in the alleged negligence and avarice, resulting in the ongoing textbook crisis.

Sources in the Sindh Education department said that the STB, from Saturday, started receiving in parts the imported consignment of printing paper for free primary school books to be distributed in the province, but the officials concerned were avoiding to talk on the issue or give new dates for delivery of books to the students.

After failing to meet two earlier deadlines set for book supply to the city and district governments, for onwards distribution among the students, the STB authorities were so confused that they were reluctant to give any fresh date for delivery of the books, the source added.

Earlier, the STB had announced that the books would be made available to local government by the mid of March, while the Sindh Education department also ran a campaign, basing on the STB commitment, till April 5, asking the parents of class I to V students not to purchase books from the market, as they would get the books free of cost in the schools.

However, on April 10, the STB secretary, through advertisements in the national press, citing delay in release of government funds as a cause of the crisis, vowed that distribution of books in question would be started from April 25. However, things did not go as per announcement and the STB was now under severe criticism from different quarters, who believed that the books would not be made available to the students till the start of summer vacations, a source said.

The insiders attribute the repeated failures of the STB in providing the books in question to the decision of importing paper from abroad. The board chairman had claimed about two weeks back that the decision regarding the import of paper was not taken alone by him, but all those who mattered in the hierarchy of the STB and Sindh education department, including the secretary and minister of the department and chief minister, were informed duly about the developments and they had approved the idea of importing paper for free textbooks.

However, market sources said that the agreement between the STB and a private party for paper import was not evenly based. They alleged that the details of agreement were not vetted carefully, and that was why the board failed to take appropriately action against the private party.

A source said that the STB had approved a bid of Rs61,500 per ton for the purpose of paper import, which would now be revised upward due to the alleged faulty agreement and delay in action against the private party, which was supposed to deliver the paper in question latest by Feb 15. The whole lot of 2,439 tonnes of paper could now cost the STB around over Rs70,000 per ton, he added.

However, the STB officials, including its chairman, remained silent on the subject, despite repeated requests by this scribe. The chairman also avoided to give any exact amount of L/C pertaining to import of paper, while the Education secretary, when contacted a couple of days back, was not found ready to reply to some related queries, at a time when millions of students have been kept waiting for the textbooks.

The market sources alleged that the LC was opened by the STB at much higher side as compared to the rate of paper in the international market. The idea of opening of LC by STB and allowance to the private party, which gave a rate of Rs61,600 per ton of paper, also appeared as ridiculous, a marketeer said.

Talking on behalf of the private party, Asif Jamil, said that the price of paper would surely increase due to different delaying actions on part of the STB. "Though the correct cost of paper is yet to be figured out, I hope that it would somehow be manageable in line with the deal agreement," he mentioned.

The convener of the Pakistan Publishers and Booksellers Association, Aziz Khalid, said that the much delayed imported paper was now being made available to publishers of the board's Landhi godown.

After supply of the required quantity of paper for entire range of free books, the publishers would begin printing of the required books, which could take 15 to 20 days, he assessed.

However, keeping in view the limited facility of machine-folding and gathering of paper, a senior publisher said that binding would be a daunting task. However, he added that the entire process of printing and binding could be disturbed, if the routine summer power crisis continued this year too.