“We are receiving complaints about unavailability of textbooks from different districts,” says Dhirendra Khanal, manager at Sajha Prakashan, a public-sector enterprise tasked with supplying textbooks across the country. According to Khanal, thousands of students in Taplejung, Bhojpur, Sankhuwasabha, Dadeldhura, Doti and Bajura districts have been making do, sharing textbooks among themselves.
However, Ram Swarup Sinha, Secretary at the Ministry of Education (MoE), denies any scarcity of textbooks. “We have not received any complaints,” Sinha says. He professed ignorance about a recent incident in which students picketed the District Education Office (DEO) Doti, demanding immediate delivery of textbooks.
Result of flawed policy
Inadequate delivery of textbooks is nothing new. It has been recurring in remote districts for the past few years, and especially since the government allowed the private sector to print and distribute school textbooks. In 2063 BS, the government invited the private sector to distribute textbooks in some eastern districts.
Four years ago, students in some hill districts of eastern Nepal had complained of unavailability of textbooks. A study carried out subsequently by a consultancy outfit on behalf of the government found that private presses had failed to distribute school textbooks in the remote districts.
However, the government allowed private presses to print and distribute textbooks in all districts in the eastern region the next year also. Participation of the private sector in the distribution of textbooks was expanded to western Nepal the following year. This year the government wanted to expand it further by involving the private sector in the central region as well. But the Public Accounts Committee of the Legislature-Parliament prevented the government from doing so.
According to Khanal, private presses tend to distribute textbooks mainly in the urban districts. “They distribute all books in those districts linked to major highways,” he says. “They do not care for students in the rural areas.” This, Khanal says, is what causes scarcity of textbooks.
Unlike the private presses, Sajha Prakashan focuses on distributing textbooks to remote districts. “We make a profit out of selling books in urban areas,” Khanal says. “We use this profit for delivering textbooks to rural districts.”
However, once the government involved the private sector in textbook distribution, Sajha Prakashan has also focused on urban areas. “We focused on selling textbooks in urban areas,” Khanal says. “We started supplying only limited quantities of textbooks to remote areas.”
Sajha Prakashan argues that private presses should distribute textbooks in rural areas also if they do business in urban districts. “We should distribute textbooks 50-50 percent,” Khanal says. “We are honestly fulfilling our responsibilities but the private sector is not.”
However, Deepak Bhandari, one of the press owners involved in printing and distributing textbooks, denies focusing on urban areas. “We have no idea where the complaints of textbooks scarcity are coming from,” he says. “We are ready to supply textbooks if some one tells us to do so.”
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