During the long summer break of two and a half months, schools have been closed in Punjab. However, this break has negatively impacted numerous students across the province as they are yet to get free textbooks since the start of the academic year. The reason behind this is a shortage of approximately 40,000 textbooks.
Distributing free textbooks is the Punjab Curriculum and Textbook Board’s responsibility. Unfortunately, before the summer vacation began, numerous students did not receive their books.
An official from the Punjab Textbook Board cited various challenges, including increased paper costs and delayed payments to publishers, which hindered their efforts.
The official assured that they have made significant strides in addressing the issues. They recently finished printing textbooks, which have now been handed over to the school education department.
However, due to the failure of the Punjab School Education Department in distributing the free textbooks, a substantial portion of the current academic year will go to waste for thousands of students.
