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Bangladesh Interim government fails to give textbooks to millions of pupils again.
Mar 06, 2025 03:31 pm
By
infodivyadelhi

Divya Delhi:  Millions of Bangladeshi schoolchildren are disturbed and worried about their future after the Muhammad Yunus-led interim administration failed to distribute textbooks again. After missing the January deadline, former Education Advisor Wahiduddin Mahmud said the NCTB will distribute all 40.15 crore textbooks by February. Local media say they missed this deadline also. One youngster told The Daily Star, a renowned Bangladeshi daily, "Our professors only teach subjects we have books for. Then they send us home. I've heard other schools have the same problem." When top Education Ministry and NCTB officials and other interim government officials said all students would get textbooks by February, hopes were high. With every delay, reality seems different. As book deliveries are delayed, student education suffers. Prothom Alo, the country's biggest daily, reports that 70 million (7 crore) books remain to be printed as of February 19, most of them secondary school texts, according to NCTB data. A worried student told The Business Standard last month: "We received two of our 10 primary books in the first week of January. The following month brought four more. However, math and English books are absent." Nearly half of our kids don't have smartphones for PDFs or unauthorized textbooks. Our teachers cannot begin full-fledged classes. We don't know how much of the course to cover for the June half-yearly exams "said. According to The Dhaka Tribune, the Divisional Primary Education Office claimed that just 49% of primary and 8.8% of secondary textbooks were delivered in Barisal in January. Many students have not gotten any books, while others have received only a few. Students and parents are also frustrated because most have not gotten a book.