KATHMANDU, Jan 26: The school-level students across the country are sure to get their textbooks before the commencement of the new academic year in the upcoming academic year, thanks to ongoing progress in the printing of the textbooks from the Janak Education Materials Centre (JEMC).
A team of the Prime Minister's Secretariat carried out the monitoring of the textbook printing jobs and directed the JEMC's officials to accomplish the tasks before the new academic year in May. For the first time in history, the students got their textbooks with the admission into the new class in the current academic year after the instruction of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to meet the deadline.
Students in some areas deprived of textbooks
During a meeting with the monitoring team from the PMO, Managing Director of JEMC Anil Kumar Jha said they were committed to supplying the school textbooks in time. "Papers needed for the (books) printing have been bought and the printing jobs are ongoing round the clock with two shifts in a day. Supply of books in the depots is also being carried out simultaneously," Jha said.
Printing of the textbooks has advanced with the government decision to print books of grade one to five in the private printing press and the books of grade five to 12 in the JEMC. Likewise, the Curriculum Development Centre has already issued a tender notice to select the printing presses from the private sector.
According to the JEMC, it has left to print just 6.5 million textbooks out of 17 million books needed from grade five to 12.
The JEMC is preparing to print some 70,000 to 80,000 textbooks each day. PM Dahal's Public Relations Expert Buddhi GC, Personal Joint Secretary Gokarna Bhatta, Joint Secretary Sangita Ojha and other officials made a surprise visit to the Centre in Bhaktapur on Thursday and instructed the Centre to ensure quality in the textbook printing, protect the printed textbooks and ensure proper utilization of the printing papers.
