Baghlan students haunted by textbook shortage

PUL-I-KHUMRI (Pajhwok): A number of students and teachers of public-sector schools in northern Baghlan province complain about a lack of textbooks over the past several years.

However, the officials concerned have promised the availability and distribution of textbooks to all students this year.

Gul Mohammad, whose three sons are school students, said his children had not received textbooks over the past several years.

He said his younger son, a student at the Omar Farooq High School, had received only four books. He has to purchase the rest in the market.

Karim Dad Rahimi, a resident from Khost district, also grumbled about the shortage of textbooks, which could be found easily in the market.

He urged the government to address the issue as soon as possible. The students who could not purchase textbooks remained deprived of education, he regretted.

Meanwhile, Imran, a student of the 10th grade at the Islam Qala High School, said he had been buying textbooks from the market over the past five years.

The student claimed this year he had not received a single book and had to buy it from the market.

Maulvi Amir Mohammad, principal of a secondary school in the Surkh Kotal area of Dand-i-Ghori district, also acknowledged the problem and urged the government to resolve it with a sense of urgency.

“Our school has 700 students and none of them has been given complete sets of textbooks, whose non-availability impeded the implementation of the course policy,” he argued.

Nazmir Qani, headmaster of the Gawswar High School, said: “Our students have not been given new textbooks for the past several years.

“But this year, the Education Department provided some books. We have distributed more than 2,000 books to students above the seventh grades.”

He said they had requested books for students below the seventh grade, but the department did not have books for primary schoolstudents.

On the other hand, another education official, Maulvi Abdul Wadud, said they had sent textbooks to schools in the districts and would be distributed to students soon.

According to him, this year, all students will be given books of all subjects. From today, they will also stop the sale of books from the Ministry of Education in the market.

He says no one is allowed to sell textbooks published by UNICEF or the Ministry of Education in the market.

But booksellers in Pul-i-Khumri say they buy old books from students or purchase copies of original books printed in Kabul and sell them to students.

sa/mud

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