Free books for indigenous pupils in own languages
Visually impaired students will also get free Braille textbooks
HARUN UR RASHID
The government, for the first time, is going to distribute free Braille textbooks for visually impaired students and books for indigenous pupils in their own languages.
Besides, the National Curriculum and Textbooks Board (NCTB) will provide free books for technical students in 61 subjects, even though these students get free textbooks from the Bangladesh Technical Education Board (BTEB).
NCTB sources said secondary-level teachers would get one set of free books of all classes for the first time, and another set of books would be kept in the school library in case additional copies are available. Even one set of books can be kept in the district public library on condition of availability, they added.
On the other hand, the NCTB has already distributed free teachers guidebooks for primary and secondary levels. A total of 601,724 primary teachers have got the guidebooks, while 4,666,664 secondary-level teachers have received them.
Different organisations have long been demanding that the visually impaired students be given Braille textbooks.
Ashiqur Rahman, treasurer of the Bangladesh Visually Impaired Peoples Society, told The Independent that the availability of Braille textbooks was insufficient for visually impaired students in the past. The number of such students is increasing, but the number of Braille books is inadequate, he said.
The government has now decided to provide books for all the visually impaired students. Five organisations, including the government, are preparing these books. Were preparing 1,600 Braille books for Class VI, which would be distributed by the NCTB, he added.
Mushtaq Ahmed Bhuiyan, controller of distribution of the NCTB, told The Independent that they would distribute 9,703 copies of Braille textbooks for 12,100 visually impaired students from primary to Class IX for the first time. Well distribute Braille textbooks for the first time considering the growing demands of students, he said.
Speaking about books for indigenous students, Bhuiyan said, We are preparing books for indigenous students from pre-primary to Class II for the first time in five languagesMarma, Chakma, Garo, Sadri and Tripura.
A total of 51,782 copies of books would be distributed among 24,641 students, he added.
When asked about the distribution of technical books, Bhuiyan said a total of 921,110 copies would be distributed among 210,750 students of Class IX.
Meanwhile, NCTB officials said the government would distribute 362,182,245 copies of free textbooks in primary and secondary levelsin the beginning of the next year.
Bhuiyan said about 28.50 crore copies of textbooks would be printed with high-standard lamination and the rest of the eight crore books would be printed like the previous years.
All books for students of pre-primary to Class V and equivalent madrasa will be of high quality to prevent damages due to rainwater or other reasons, while students of Class VI to Class IX will get nine high-quality laminated books with four colours.
NCTB officials said the distribution of 70 per cent of the books to different areas had already been completed. All the books would be sent to every district and upazila by December 15, they added.
The officials expressed hope that there would be no problems to distribute the books among the students on January 1 next year.
The education ministry has been distributing free books since 2010, when 19 crore free books were distributed among students. As many 23.31 crore books were distributed in 2011, 22.13 crore books in 2012, 26.17 crore books in 2013, 29.96 crore books in 2014 and 33.37 books were distributed in 2015.
NCTB chairman Narayan Chandra Saha said, Its a mammoth task to distribute textbooks among students on time. Were working hard to complete our task.
