PESHAWAR: Textbook shortages in public sector schools of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa have marred the new academic year as well as the ongoing enrolment campaign, officials say.

Students receive course books from the provincial government free of charge at the advent of scholastic year in April.

However, this is not the case this time around due to a delay in the release of requisite funds to the provincial textbook board.

A board official told Dawn that Rs10.39 billion was required to print 60 million textbooks for the current academic year, which began two weeks ago,but the government had so far released just Rs3 billion for it.

Official claims govt released Rs3bn out of Rs10.39bn required to print 60m textbooks

He claimed that the textbook board as well as the elementary and secondary education department had been requesting the finance department for two months to release the book printing funds to avoid mess at the start of the next academic year, but to no avail.

“We’re supposed to face this mess as the printers had stopped producing books seeing the government as well as the textbook board strapped for cash,” he said.

The official said until a few years ago whenever the funding was delayed by the finance department, the board used to pay printing companies from its own resources to claim the amount afterwards.

He, however, said it wasn’t the case anymore as the board had already exhausted its savings to pay printing firms and was left with money only to pay salary to employees until June.

“The government’s failure to release the requisite funds blocked the provision of free course books to all students of government schools,” he said.

The owner of a privately-owned printing company commissioned by the textbook board feared that book shortages would last two months (April and May).

“The provision of books to students is likely to be completed by the end of next month, so learning loss is unavoidable,” he told Dawn.

According to official data, the schools in short supply are of mathematics for grade 9, Islamiat for grade 7, creative arts for nursery, Pashto and Arabic for grades 9 and 8, Islamiat for grade 3, English for grade 6, ethics for grades 11 and 12, Urdu for grade 1, general science and Islamiat for grade 6th, Urdu grade 3, Nazara Quran for grades 3 and 4, computer science for grade 6, fine arts for grades 11 and 12, Urdu for grade 7, introduction to technology for grade 6, biology and mathematic for grades 10 and 7 respectively, English for grade 3, Urdu for grade 2, English for grade 8 and mathematics for grade 4.

When contacted, adviser to the chief minister on education Rehmat Salam Khattak confirmed textbook shortages and attributed it to a delay in the release of required funds to the textbook board due to “crippling economy” of the province.

He, however, claimed that 73 per cent of the free books had been provided to the schools and the remaining would be delivered after the imminent Eidul Fitr festival.

The minister said the government wanted to pay salaries to its employees before the Eid holidays but couldn’t do so for lack of funds.

He said the centre had promised funding to the province and once it reached the caretaker government, the printers would be paid for printing textbooks.

President of the School Officers Association KP Samiullah Khalil demanded of the government to ensure the immediate delivery of free textbooks to students to prevent further learning loss.

He said teachers had asked students to share textbooks with each other in classrooms as a solution to shortages, but those without books struggled to do homework.

Another schoolteacher told Dawn that fears of imminent shortage of books forced teachers to tell students during the March examinations to leave their books for those to be promoted to their respective classes.

“Now, we have provided those old books to new students but they’re in a bad condition,” he said.

Published in Dawn, April 16th, 2023