ISLAMABAD: On the first day of the academic session on Monday, Mohammad Sami, 14, went to school expecting to crack open new textbooks and engage with the challenging materials to be taught in the ninth grade.

However, as no textbooks were supplied to schools by the Federal Directorate of Education (FDE), no lessons could be taught and the students spent the entire day chatting with one another.

`We can`t learn without textbooks,` said Sami, who is a student at Islamabad Model School in Sector G-9/4.

His classmate, Syed Mujahid, expressed disappointment over the unavailability of books.

`We don`t know when textbooks would be provided to us,` he said.

A teacher, requesting anonymity, said students should have been given textbooks on March 31, the day the results came out. Students could have gone through the lessons during spring vacation, she said.

`It appears that education is not a priority for those in power,` she commented.

On Monday, all FDE-run schools in the capital reopened for the new academic session, after 12days of spring holidays.

Under an agreement, between the FDE and the National Book Foundation (NBF), students would be provided textbooks on the first day of the academic session. According to officials in the FDE, the NBF was supposed to supply books to the FDE by April 10.

`So far, we have only received 35 per cent of the books, which we have begun distributing in schools,` said an FDE official, requesting not to benamed.

He said the NBF should be blamed for wasting the students` precious time. According to the FDE`s documents, not all books have been provided yet. Currently, for classes 9 and 10, only 14 out of 27 titles have been provided to the FDE.

For classes three and four, not a single copy of any title has been supplied.

Most of the books available with the FDE are yet to be distributed. An FDE official said classes 9 and 10 are suffering the most because of unavailability of books.

The official said that a notification had been issued by the FDE, directing school principals to collect books from students after exams were over. In the schools where principals were able to collect books, there were no serious issues as most students were given old bool(s. However, in many schools, principals were unable to collectbooks, the official said.

He added that class 10 students are sitting matriculation exams so their books cannot be given to students who just started classes 9 and 10.

When FDE Director-General Shahnaz Riaz was contacted, she said she was unaware of the textbook shortage.

`I rejoined the FDE, three days ago, after a long gap. However, I know students suffer because of a shortage of books every year,` she said.

She added she will try her best to resolve the issue.

Meanwhile, NBF Secretary Aftab Ahmed Soomro told Dawn efforts were being made to provide all the books to the FDE within the next few days.

`The FDE involved us at a very late stage. We were given the task of printing a large number of books in February, which was very difficult, he said.

In response to a question, he confirmed that the NBF was responsible for providing the books by April 10.

`We are trying our best to resolve the problem. However, it would have been better if the FDE contacted us in September or October rather than in February,` he said.