LAHORE: Students of elementary classes all over Punjab have been facing problems because of non-availability of textbooks for the new academic year (2022-23) starting from Aug 1.

The Punjab School Education Department (SED) could not provide the textbooks for the students of sixth, seventh and eighth classes due to delay in the printing of these books.

Because of the glitch, the affected students have to spend two months of summer vacation – from June 1 to July 31 – without any homework assignments.

The department had issued directions to all chief executive officers (CEOs) of the District Education Authorities (DEAs) to manage the distribution of books and homework assignments for the students during the summer vacation.

The department had notified that the academic session for all the public and private schools in the province for the year 2022-2023 will be observed from August 1, 2022 to March 31, 2023.As the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board (PCTB) had stopped the printing of books under the Single National Curriculum (SNC) for middle classes, the students have no books for homework.

Punjab Teachers Union leader Rana Liaqat told Dawn that as no textbooks were available, teachers could not assign homework for summer vacation to the students.

He says the government had advised the teachers to collect the books from the students who had moved to next class and assign homework of general subjects, including grammar and history etc, for summer vacation, adding that despite this the students are still facing shortage of books.Last week, the Textbook Publishers Association (TPA) had also protested against paper mills for increasing the price of paper in Urdu Bazaar.

The TPA members that also includes copy manufacturers, publishers of the holy Quran and other Islamic and general books, said the paper mill owners were raising the prices on a weekly basis and it would become impossible for them to publish text and other books.

They had warned that this would put the future of millions of students at stake. They said if they increased the books’ prices, many students won’t be able to purchase them.

TPA president Fawaz Niaz says the paper mills have raised the price of paper from Rs112 to Rs235 per kg during the last month and this hike would be reflected in the books’ prices.

He says that in the developed world the prices of paper are fixed by the government to stabilise the prices of books, but there is no such check in Pakistan.

He says the government had doubled the tax on local printers, but foreign printed books were exempted from duty, that was unfair.

He warns if corrective measures were not taken, there would be a massive increase in the prices of textbooks.

Published in Dawn, June 21st, 2022