Dhaka Bureau: The government will hold a ‘book festival’ on January 1. On that day, 3 crore, 81 lakh students will be given free new books for the next academic year.
Sources from the Ministry of Primary and Mass Education said that 3 crore, 81 lakh, 28 thousand, and 354 students from pre-primary level to ninth and equivalent classes will be given free books during the book festival. A total of 30 crore, 70 lakh, 83 thousand, and 517 books will be distributed. Among them, there will be 40 lakh, 96 thousand, and 628 teaching assistants.
In a letter to the Secretary of Secondary and Higher Education on Sunday (December 24), the Election Commission (EC) has given permission for the book festival on January 1. Earlier, permission was sought from the Ministry of Education for the EC to organize this event.
In the book festival of the 2024 academic year, there were 3 million 80 thousand 205 people of pre-primary level, 1 crore 82 million 55 thousand 284 people of primary level, 85 thousand 722 people of minority groups, 3 million 96 thousand 608 people of the first to fifth grade of Ibtedai, and sixth to ninth grade of secondary school. 1 crore four lakh 90 thousand 107 students, 24 lakh 23 thousand 348 students from 6th to 9th class of Dakhil, 1 lakh 73 thousand 855 students from 6th to 9th class of English version, 2 lakh 71 thousand 952 students from 6th to 9th class of technical (trade), 6 thousand 15 people of Dakhil Vocational, and 724 people of Braille system; these total 3 crore 81 lakh 28 thousand 354 students will get new books.
Meanwhile, the consent letter of the Election Commission mentioned that, like other years, the ‘Book Festival’ is a routine function of the government to officially distribute new textbooks across the country on January 1, 2024, the day of the commencement of the academic year.
Field-level concerned departmental commissioners, district commissioners, upazila executive officers, and all concerned will regularly distribute books among the students in various educational institutions in their respective working areas. The program will continue if the prime minister officially gives his consent to start the book distribution program.
