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Textbook irregularities fuel blame game
KATHMANDU, JUN 12 -
Irregularities in the printing and distribution of the school level curriculum and books continue to fuel the blame-game between the government authorities and the private sector bodies.
According to a recent survey conducted by the Education Journalists’ Network, Nepal (EJON), the books with low quality papers and various other deformities like thin cover-page and less weight are being sold in the market. The students cannot keep such books safe longer than a month or two, said educationists and concerned authorities.
Speaking at a programme organised by EJON on Saturday, Manoj Lamichhane, speaker for Janak Education Materials Centre (JEMC) stated that the faulty involvement of the private bodies in this sector has remarkably dwindled the market of high quality books published by Sajha Prakashan and it has caused a serious loss to the government. “Private bodies are printing and selling low quality books even in the areas they are not authorised by the government to do the job, “ he said. “Producing low quality books is unethical. Besides the private sector never takes the responsibility of distributing books in remote areas where there are less chances of profit,” he claimed.
However, the private sector bodies defend that the quality of books cannot be judged by their physical appearance. “We have already distributed books in all the parts that were assigned to us,” said Dibya Govinda Joshi of Nepal Mudran Udhyog Sangh. “We have not sold a single book in the areas where the government distributes books. If anyone is doing so, we must suspect that a next group is also involved into the business. The government should take immediate action against those bodies rather than passing the bucks.”
Similarly, blaming the private sector for all the mess, General Manager and Chairman of Sajha Prakashan Mamata Jha said, “The irregularities are evident both in the physical appearance and contents of books. We recently found that some chapters of class eight were included in Social Study book of grade V.” She suggested that the Education Ministry allocate class-wise printing and distribution assignments to the government and private bodies to solve the problems.
Statistics show sale of the books printed by Sajha Prakashan has declined by more than 50 percent. This indicates a heavy loss to the government on education management front. “The only solution to this is the co-operation between the government and private sector bodies,” said lawmaker Rabindra Adhikari.
Posted on: 2010-06-13 08:55
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