<i>Huge number of surplus textbooks at a school raises question</i>
A large number of government prescribed textbooks meant for free distribution among students lie haphazardly in the computer room of Nilphamari Government Girls' High School although the 'surplus' books are supposed to be returned to the local office of the education department. Photo: STAR
A large number of textbooks meant for free distribution among students are kept at Nilphamari Government Girls' High School although three months of the current academic year have already passed. Such an act clearly violates education department's directive that makes it obligatory to return the surplus books (if there is any after distribution) to the district or upazila education office as early as possible. Visiting the school on Wednesday, this correspondent found that about 1,000 brand new textbooks of years 2011 and 2012 were piled up haphazardly at a portion of the school's computer room. The books are on Bangla, English, mathematics, science, social science, home economics, computer science, drawing and religious studies for classes six to nine. Asked about the matter, headmaster of the school Kamrunnahar Begum first said that the surplus books were old and torn as those were collected from students. Later she said, “Most of the books are of last year's. I joined this school in August last year. It was responsibility of the previous headmistress to return those books.” On contact, the previous headmaster Dilruba Rahman (now serving Dimla Government Boys' High School), said, "Before leaving Nilphamari Government Girls' High School, I handed over the charge and everything to new headmaster Kamrunnahar Begum as per rules. It would be better if she adjusted the number of books of previous year while preparing statement on demand of textbooks for this year." Contacted, District Education Officer Roksana Begum said, "According to rules school authorities are bound to return textbooks if there is any surplus. Keeping a large number of textbooks at Nilphamari Government Girls' High School indicates that they had received textbooks through submitting statement of higher than actual demand." "I shall take step regarding this irregularity as per rule after visiting the school,” she said. “Due to acute crisis of textbooks on several subjects this year we collected even old and torn books from students of previous classes in high schools of different upazilas and districts. Even students got books of a few subjects in March instead of January," she added. Each school sends a statement mentioning the requirement of textbooks as per number of students well before January and the education directorate supplies the books accordingly, education directorate sources said. Questioning how such a large number of textbooks could remain as surplus in a high school, the sources expressed suspicion that the persons concerned might have submitted false statement for receiving more than required number of books with an ill intention. While the government every year spends huge amount of money for printing high school textbooks and its free distribution among students, a portion of the books are allegedly sold in the black market.
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