Amid the coronavirus (COVID-19) situation, the government will hand over new books to about 4.5 crore students at free of cost at the beginning of new year.
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will formally inaugurate the distribution of textbooks through a virtual event from Ganabhaban on Thursday, reports BSS.
The prime minister will hand over the textbooks to some primary and secondary level students in presence of ministers and secretaries at the Bangabandhu International Conference Centre in city’s Sher-e-Bangla Nagar.
On January 1, 2021, the textbook distribution will begin at educational institutions across the country.
Following that, new textbooks will be distributed to the students of sixth to ninth class in the next twelve days in phases.
Although there is no book festival on January 1 due to the closure of educational institutions amid COVID-19 pandemic, these students are getting free books at the beginning of the year.
Around 350 million books are being printed in this regard
Various still images or pictures of Bangabandhu, independence, great liberation war, language movement and various developmental activities of the present government have been added with captions to new books.
According to the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education, the total number of textbooks next year is 10,25,82,555.
Of these, 2,59,92,671 books for first-second class students, 6,96,97,374 books for third-fourth and fifth class students.
Special language books for 94,275 minority ethnic groups (Chakma, Marma, Tripura, Garo and Sadri) will be distributed in five languages from pre-primary to third grade.
This time Braille books will be distributed to 9,196 visually impaired people.
According to the Ministry of Education, in the academic year of 2021, work is underway to print 24,33,34,000 copies of books for secondary students.
Awami League government had been holding a ‘book festival’ on January 1 every year in a festive atmosphere since 2010 with the aim of making education standard and preventing dropout rates.
This time it is not possible to hold a book festival due to the global coronavirus outbreak.
In the last ten years from 2010 to the current year (2020), about 3.31 billion primary and secondary books have been distributed across the country.