Students to receive new books in January, says finance advisor

He says this year’s process began in September to avoid delays

Finance Advisor Salehuddin Ahmed has said he is hopeful that textbooks will be delivered to students in January, as the government moves to accelerate printing this month.

Speaking after a meeting of the Advisory Council on Government Procurement and Economic Affairs on Sunday, Salehuddin said that, unlike last year -- when orders were placed in November -- this year’s process began in September to avoid delays.

“We are supposed to deliver the new books on Jan 1,” he said.

“We have already ordered a number of them. But today we told them to properly scrutinise them.”

He added that some orders have already been placed, while the rest will be finalised this month after further checks.

The finance advisor emphasised more stringent verification was needed to prevent irregularities in the printing process.

“We will check the quality of the books from those who previously received the contracts - what kind of paper was used, and who is getting more than one order, whether there is a monopoly or not,” he said.

“That is why we will check and select more carefully from the list. The proposal to buy books today has been withdrawn.”

Salehuddin acknowledged that authorities have received complaints of irregularities in the past.

“There are some complaints that someone took one order, but then also took the rest,” he said, adding that institutions linked to such practices would be identified.

Asked when a decision would be made on which companies would print the books, he said: “The decision will be made within this month. We are trying to verify and select them within a couple of weeks.”

Since 2010, the ousted Awami League government had maintained the tradition of handing out textbooks on the first day of the year. Although not all books were always available, many students received at least part of their new materials on Jan 1.

But that tradition was disrupted last year.

On Aug 5, 2024, ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina left for India in the wake of mass protests.

Soon afterwards, the interim government scrapped the new curriculum introduced during the previous administration, calling it “not feasible”.

Authorities then decided to reissue the 2012 curriculum books for the current academic year.

But correcting and revising what officials described as “misleading information,” “distortion” of history, and “personal interests” embedded in the texts took months, delaying printing by about four months.

As a result, many students did not receive their textbooks even well into the school year.

On Sunday’s meeting, the Secondary and Higher Education Division initially proposed the purchase of free books for ninth and tenth graders but later withdrew the plan.

In the same meeting, the council approved the purchase of EPI vaccines through a direct procurement method.