Students in western Nepal angry for not getting text-books

Change in the curriculum of secondary school from this academic year has caused an increase in demand of text-books in ten hilly districts of western Nepal.

Kantipur Daily reported that there's a demand of more than 30 thousand books in these districts because of which the book dealers here have not been able to meet the demand.

According to government publication house Sajha Prakashan, compared to last year, the demand of books has almost doubled this year.

Prem Bahadur Karki, a top official with the Sajha Prakashan, told the daily that last year's old books met almost half of the total demand, but this year there was no possibility of this as there was a change in the curriculum.

However, it has been over a month that the new academic session has started but Janak Educational Materials Corporation hasn't been able to avail even half of the total text-books needed.

According to Karki, Sajha Prakashan has only received 11 thousand books till now, way lower than their original demand of 30 thousand books.

Saying that the text books received till now was not enough for distribution, Janak Educational Material Corporation and association of book dealers had agreed to halt all distribution till May 23.

This has infuriated both students and their guardians as they have not received the text-books designated by the curriculum board on time. The unavailability of text books has also caused the student attendance in the schools to drastically go down. Sajha Prakashan hasn't even been distributing the books it has received till now, angering the students and their guardians further. nepalnews.com ag May 22 08

Related News
- Students shut down Biratnagar