Primary students across Dhaka kicked off 2023 by getting their hands on new textbooks for the upcoming academic year, bdnews24.com reports.
The 'Book Distribution Festival' for pre-primary and primary schools began at Dhaka University's central playground with much fanfare on Sunday.
State Minister for Primary and Mass Education Md Zakir Hossain inaugurated the annual festival by handing over new textbooks to students from various primary schools in Dhaka.
New books will also be distributed among students across the country on the first day of the year, according to Zakir.
Education authorities are aiming to provide more than 96.6 million books to over 21.8 million students, the state minister said.
“The new books have already reached all the schools. A few sets may be missing because of the printing presses. The presses could not print all books in their entirety on time due to various problems, including paper shortages, stemming from the Ukraine-Russia war.
"About 80 per cent of the books have been given to us. We will be able to provide 100 per cent of the books within this month.”
The government has been distributing free books on the first day of the year since 2010 under a special initiative by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, according to Zakir. He also called on parents and teachers to mould primary school students into 'smart citizens' who can then help materialise Hasina's vision of a 'Smart Bangladesh'.