The students in Federal Directorate of Education (FDE) schools are still without textbooks, despite their academic year has already started on April 11.
The officials at FDE blame the delay on the National Book Foundation (NBF). They say the NBF authorities did not order the publishers in time, which has caused this delay in publishing and distributing textbooks. But an official of the NBF stated that the FDE had not paid the amount of Rs 170 million, which was to be disbursed to publishers. “The authority cannot provide textbooks to FDE unless it gets all the pending dues,” the official added.
“My daughter is promoted to Class VIII and she has to appear in the board examinations this year but the non-availability of the books has dampened her eagerness to get good grades,” says aggrieved mother Shaista Zahid. Another parent, Majid Akbar said the careless attitude of the relevant authorities would make the students suffer and unfortunately it had become a routine practice for the last several years. “The authorities should immediately pay attention to this matter and devise a strategy to counter this issue,” he said.
The FDE provides free textbooks to all the students from Class I to Class X.