Students to get free textbooks in February

Karachi: According to the Education Minister Jam Mehtab Hussain Dahar, the Sindh Text Book Board (STBB) will begin distributing free textbooks among the aspirants of class 1 to 10 from the second week of February.

This work will continue till the end of March, he added. He was heading a meeting along with the chairperson of STBB Syed Zakir Hussain Shah in his office on Tuesday.

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In General, 29 million textbooks would be distributed without any cost among students of government schools.

The minister instructed Shah to complete the supply of free textbooks to schools before the beginning of the new session 2017-2018, so that the students do not have to face any sort of issue in their studies.

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“Rs1.6 billion will be spent on printing, supply and transportation of the free textbooks to schools,” he said, adding that all the regulations would be followed and no negligence will be tolerated. Dahar also said that the government was spending approximately Rs25, 000 to Rs28, 000 on every student studying in any public sector school.

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“It is ill-fated that we were unable to achieve our goals,” he added.

The education minister was of the opinion that as per the available data, the government sector was spending much more money on every student as compared to the well-known private educational institute.

“It was the result of the lack of enthusiasm in teachers and concerned officers,” he pointed out, asking the head of STBB to always go for open tenders for publishing as well as supply of free textbooks in order to avoid any misconception as well as to bring a good name to the department.