New textbooks often go untouched throughout the entire school year and can pose significant environmental repercussions.

The National Curriculum and Textbook Board has been stuck in the loop of controversies centring on school textbooks with academics and some NCTB officials blaming it on the negligence of writers and editors, insufficient training and lack of serious punishment for blunders.

As we approach another general election, the utmost thing of worry is that such appeasement will only intensify.

Even though festivals to distribute free textbooks will be celebrated at schools, many students will not get the full set of new books today, the first day of the latest academic year, thanks to the high price of paper and delays in placing work orders.

The authorities won’t be able to deliver 25 percent of the primary textbooks on January 1, the first day of the next academic year thanks to the high price of paper, load-shedding and delays in placing the work orders.

Some 35.42 crore (exact figure 35,42,90,162) textbooks will be distributed among the students of primary to intermediate-level across the country in 2018 academic year.

More than 44 million primary and secondary level students are set to receive new textbooks on the first morning of 2016, as around 33 crore copies of textbooks are ready for free distribution.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid today assured that the printing of textbooks would be completed on schedule and school students would get them by the start of next year.