Students to get textbooks on time, first case after 1990

This year media headlines regarding the availability of school textbooks for a new academic year are something heartening compared to the past.

This time students from almost all community schools across the country have already got textbooks and in the case of some districts, they are likely to get them before the completion of the enrollment campaign. According to the Janak Education Material Centre (JEMC), textbooks are likely to be dispatched to all schools by coming April 23.

As the JEMC said, community school students in 59 districts have received almost all textbooks and in the case of the remaining 18 districts, it will be made available by the next week. This time students are not forced to sit for exams without seeing textbooks, it is said. The government took the help of the private sector to print the school textbooks from grades one to five and the JEMC, the government entity, was authorized to publish the books from classes six to ten for the academic year 2080 BS. The private sector is sending books to schools as per its responsibilities and the JEMC has already finished the printing and distribution of 10.5 million textbooks. It may be noted that earlier Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal pledged to ensure the timely distribution of school textbooks for the new academic session and it was his special concern that students should get textbooks on time, unlike the past culture.

JEMC Managing Director Anil Kumar Jha said the Prime Minister's constant concern over the timely supplies of textbooks also played a role in making it possible. This is the time that students could get textbooks on time after the 1990s multiparty movement. Mountainous districts such as Jumla, Humla, and Dolpa were the priorities of the Centre for the dispatch of textbooks.