The new year is only three weeks away. So far, the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has not been able to send secondary school books to the printing house. An inspection committee has been appointed to supervise the printing of primary school books and related work.
The printing of books for three classes is also progressing. But they are not appointing an inspection committee for secondary school. Instead, NCTB wants to give this work to a government institution as an alternative. Although the concerned have said that it is not realistic. If the situation is in their favor, NCTB will be able to start printing books for sixth and seventh classes of secondary school by December.
However, in no case will they be able to start printing books for eighth, ninth and tenth classes during this period. If the conditions of the Public Procurement Rules (PPR) are to be followed, the printing of books will start in April.According to NCTB sources, the printing of books for first, second and third classes started at the end of November. Books for fourth and fifth classes have not yet gone to the press. Notification of Award (NOA) for these two classes of books has not been given. Apart from this, books for classes 6 to 10 have not gone to press either. Again, due to delays, secondary books will go to press by the end of December. According to the terms of the tender, the printing of fourth and fifth class books is supposed to end by the end of December. Apart from this, even after sending to the press, primary books have been revised at least three times. The same situation may be the case for secondary books. That may also be one of the reasons for the delay in printing.
NCTB officials said that the printing of books is being delayed due to various reasons including changing circumstances, delay in revision, and delay in appointing inspection agents. NCTB had thought that it would be possible to hand over some good books to secondary students at the beginning of the year. And all the books would be in their hands by January. However, reality says that it will not be possible. Because, Ramadan will start from the beginning of March. Then workers will not be available. Even if they are available, they will not work properly due to the busyness of Ramadan. If we try to get the books in a hurry, low-quality books may again end up in the hands of children.
This time, the government will distribute more than 400 million books for free to all classes. Even though there are three weeks left for the start of the new academic year, NCTB has been able to start printing only 50 million books out of these books. The organization has not yet been able to start printing about 350 million books.
What is the status of the books in which class: According to the information of the production branch of NCTB, out of 98 lots of books for classes one to three of primary, printing of 70 lots is underway. NCTB also wants to complete the work of the remaining lots quickly. In addition, the approval of the books for classes four and five from the office of the Chief Advisor has reached the Ministry of Education. This week, it will go from the ministry to NCTB. Then it will be given. Then the presses will sign the contract. According to the information of the distribution branch, the contract for books for classes six and seven was given on November 25. The presses will have time until December 23 to sign the contract. The Purchase Committee for class eight approved the book on November 27. So far, no resolution has come to NCTB. However, it may come this week. The ninth and tenth are still far behind. The tenth tender was submitted on November 25. The tenth-class book was evaluated. Now it will go to the Ministry of Education. And the ninth-class book is still being evaluated.
Why is the book printing work being delayed: After talking to NCTB and press owners, it was learned that in order to start the book printing work, a notice has to be given in the newspaper first. After the notice, the press owners used to get 27-28 days to participate in the tender. This time, in the changed situation, NCTB has given 10 days. After the tender is opened, NCTB forms an evaluation and verification committee. These committees evaluate and verify within a maximum of 21 days. Then the matter goes to HOPE, i.e. the NCTB chairman. After the chairman’s signature, it goes to the Ministry of Education. Then the ministry verifies it. It takes another 10-15 days there. From there, it goes to the Purchase Committee.
This committee meets once a week, on Tuesday. If for some reason no tender is received in the meeting one week, it goes to the next week. If everything is in order, the tender gets approved once it reaches the Purchase Committee. Then it goes to the Prime Minister’s Office. It takes another 10-15 days there. From there, it goes to the NCTB after it is passed. Then the NCTB gives NOA to the presses. After receiving NOA, the presses have to give acceptance within 7 days and performance guarantee (PG) within 14 days. In total, after NOA, the press owners get 28 days to sign the contract. After the contract, the printing work starts.
According to the terms of the PPR, the presses will get 28 days to sign the contract. After that, the work will have to be completed within 40 days. Although earlier, the press owners used to get 70 days to print secondary school books. However, this time, the NCTB has reduced the time.
NCTB sources said that the contract for class 6 and 7 books will be signed by December 23. Then, the work on this class of books will be completed in early February. According to the terms of the tender, it will take about one and a half more months for the class 8 books to go to the press. And the time to print the books may take about three months in total. Accordingly, the printing of this class of books may be completed in March. It will take about two more months for the tenth-class books to go to the press. And it may take more than three and a half months to complete the printing of the books. Accordingly, the books may go in April. On the other hand, it may take two and a half months for the ninth-class books to go to the press and four months to complete the printing of the books.
Accordingly, the printing work of this class will also be completed in April. However, one crore books of class 10 have been given to the Army Printing Press. Accordingly, sometimes can be saved. If the conditions of PPR or tender are relaxed, if the presses take less time in the contract, if the Ministry-Purchase Committee and the Office of the Chief Advisor take less time in approving the tender, this printing work can move forward further.
In addition, the committee concerned has taken more time in revising the books. The work is not yet completely completed. There are allegations that Rakhal Raha did most of the revising work. That is why there has been a delay. Its impact on the printing work. In addition, the NCTB has not yet appointed an inspection agent. That is also why there is a delay.
A press owner told Daily Industry, NCTB has told us that this time it will not accept any low-quality books. We have accepted that and are ready to provide the highest quality books; but for that, we have to deliver the work on time. NCTB is not doing that. Some officials including the NCTB chairman, secretary are responsible for this. He said that the tender work in the ministry has been done by KM Kabirul Islam. He has recently become the secretary of the Technical and Madrasa Education Department. The question remains as to how much the new person will be able to do.
NCTB Chairman Professor AKM Riazul Hasan told Daily Industry, I do not see the opportunity to send books in March or April. Primary books will be sent by December 20. Secondary books will also be sent to the students by January 10. We will get four-five secondary books by December. In addition, all the books will be uploaded on the NCTB website by January 1. So that the class activities of the students are not disrupted. Referring to the challenge, he said, this time the number of books is more. Again, we had to revise it. We had to re-tender. All in all, we are going through a lot of challenges. If the printers are sincere, it is possible to provide books on time.
NCTB’s short-sighted decision on inspection: NCTB sources said that NCTB had given an estimated bid of Tk 75 lakh for the inspection of secondary schools. But the highest bid has been Tk 32 lakh. This bid was given by a company called Bureau Veritas. Apart from this, there are Hitech, Infinity, Independent, Sheikh and Phoenix. Hitech has given the lowest of Tk 3 lakh 99 thousand among them. That is why NCTB wants to give work to government organizations instead of giving work to inspection agents.
The NCTB chairman said, the work will not be stopped for the infection agent. We will give an alternative proposal to the ministry. We want to give the PDI at least to BMTF (Bangladesh Machine Tools Factory). They will be able to start work in a few days. We will give work to the press after testing in various labs including Science Lab, BSTI, BUET, Dhaka University.
However, those concerned said, it will not be possible to check the quality of the paper in Science Lab and BSTI and deliver the books on time. Because, they do not have the capacity to check the paper of 150 organizations. Apart from that, it will take more time. There is no previous experience on that. Again, these organizations also have their own work. The biggest thing is, another government organization cannot inspect the work of a government organization. Apart from this, there are presses all over the country. This organization does not have the manpower to go to all the presses and inspect them. That is why there will be delays.
An NCTB official said that those who are being asked to do the inspection work do not have experience. They will not be able to work by going to so many presses and sending reports every day. Again, the science lab will not be able to take the pressure of checking so many papers in such a short time. Therefore, NCTB should talk to the institutions and re-tender if necessary.
