Difficulty for students: Inter level philosophy textbooks ‘short’ in market

Sahiwal: Two Philosophy textbooks for intermediate part 1 & 2 (named: Origin of Philosophy and Logic) have gone short in the market because the Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) did not place order for their printing to any official publisher for last 2 years.

It is hereby that almost 300 inter and graduation level students of government sector institutes don’t have philosophy course book in the local market.

Punjab Text Books Board has the authority to get recommended textbooks published for all the subjects in Punjab.

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A first year students, Rao Hasan, at the Government Post Graduate College told media sources that he could not find philosophy books in the market because these books were short.

Some citizens as well as retailers of textbooks in Urdu Bazar also confirmed that the philosophy intermediate books were not available in the market.

PTB ‘fails’ to place republishing order, rejects the shortage.

“The books are not being printed for last two years”, a local book seller said.

He furthermore said that it is only the responsibility of PTB to conduct market survey and access if there was shortage of any book and then placed order for its reprinting to some official publisher.

Prof Dr Javed Iqbal Nadeem, the author of both books, said that the PTB was also responsible for delivery of manuscripts and paper for reprinting the needed textbooks.

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Hameed, another student of first year said, for the last one month he and his fellow student had been going from shop to shop however could not find the philosophy books because these were short in the market.

Dr Nadeem said he had written to the secretary of Punjab textbook board, highlighting the shortage of these books and asking him to order their reprinting though nothing had been done for the last 2 years.

As per the PTB rule, minimum 1500 textbooks of a subject should be printed every year he said while adding that shortage of inter philosophy books will more discourage students to choose the subject that had already been out of trend for the past 3 decades.

When contacted for his view on this matter, PTB Deputy Secretary (Field) Mr Noor denied there was any shortage of the inter level philosophy textbooks in the market.