PESHAWAR: The shortage of different textbooks taught in government schools marred the advent of new academic year, which started from August 15, perturbing teachers as well as students for wasting their precious time.

Sources said that the shortage of textbooks was affecting the studies of the students of primary, middle, high and higher secondary schools in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Since long, the provincial government has been providing free of cost books to students enrolled in the state-run schools.

`The provincial government is yet to provide books of more than 50 subjects required for primary, middle, high and highersecondaryclassesofthe publicsector schools in the province,` sources told Dawn.

The unavailable textbooks include Urdu, Pashto, mathematics, general science, history, geography, Islamiat, com-puter, health and physical education for 6th grade; English, Urdu, Pashto, mathematics, general science, history, geography, computer education and Islamiat for 7th grade; and Urdu, history, geography, Islamiat, computer education, introduction to technology for 8th grade.

Similarly, the computer science books for 9th grade and English, Pashto for the class 10 were also not provided to the students. The books yet to be provided to the students of lith grade include mathematics, Urdu compulsory, biology, chemistry and Mutalae Quran-i-Hakeem; and mathematics, physics and computer science for the 12th grade.

The books, which are short at primary level, include Urdu primer for KG, Nazira Quran, English for class 1st, Nazira Quran and Urdu for 2nd grade, drawing, Pashto, mathematics, Islamiat, Nazira Quran and general knowledge for 3rd grade, drawing, Pashto, mathematics, Nazira Quran for class 4th and drawing and English for 5th grade.

A teachers of a government high school told Dawn that he provided old bool(s to thestudentsof6th,7thand8thgradesdue to unavailability of the new textbooks.`We have no option but to keep the students engaged by teaching them old books,` he added.

The teacher was unable to reply whenthis scribe asked him as to why he was teaching old books since provincial government changed the entire curricula by implementing the single national curricula for 6th, 7th and 8th grades.

A headmaster of a government higher secondary school told Dawn that he directed the teachers to teach old books till arrival of new bool(s. He said that there would be not much difference in the old and new textbooks.

Minister for Elementary and Secondary Education ShehramTarakai was not available for comments.

However, officials in KP Textbook Board Peshawar told Dawn that they provided 60 per cent of the books for class 6th, 7th and 8th, which had been printed under the single national curricula. They said that only a few books of other classes were short that would be provided soon.

The textbook board was required to print 45 million books from primary to higher secondary classes out of which 37 million books have been handed over to the students prior to the advent of new academic year.

About the delay in printing of the books, the officials said that the main reason was that the authorities at textbook board were not ready to print the new books under the newly introduced single national curricula because there was nosufficient time to meet the deadline.

They said that government directed the textbook board to publish the books under the single national curricula in April while printing of new books required minimum five to six months.

However, the officials said, due the unnecessary pressure of the government, the authorities at textbook board agreed to prepare new bool(s despite showing their fear that it would not be possible to meet the deadline.

They said that the Punjab curricula and textbook board refused to print new books for three classes including 6th, 7th, and 8th and the government agreed with it.

They said that provincial government did not release a single penny to the textbook board against the estimated cost of Rs4.8 billion for 2022-23. They said that the textbook board utilised Rs4.8 billion for printing books from its own resources.

`The textbook board has so far utilised Rs11 billion on printing of books in the last few years which the provincial government has denied to release,` they added.

Officials said that the employees of textbook board were working day and night to provide books to the students at proper time but it was delayed due to irrational decisions of the government.