Funding delay for textbook printing causes fears of learning loss.

PESHAWAR -- There are fears that a funding delay by the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government for the printing of school books will hurt the children's education in the first months of the 2023-24 academic year beginning next month.

Sources in printing presses and KP Textbook Board told Dawn that around Rs10 billion was required to print 60 million textbooks in the next academic year but the provincial government had so far released only Rs1 billion for it.

Books are given away to the students of public sector schools free of charge by the provincial government at the start of every academic year. However, there is a high likelihood of a delay of some months or so this time around due to a delay in thebooks' delivery.

Owner of a printing press commissioned by the KP Textbook Board to print schoolbooks for the next academic year told Dawn that the waste of student time was proportional to the funding delay.

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'If the finance department immediately releases the required money, the students will suffer a learning loss of around one month and if the release is delayed further, then the loss will be bigger,' he said.

Sources claimed that the textbook board as well as the elementary and secondary education department had been requesting the finance department for two months to release the book printing funds to avoid mess at the start of the next academic year, but to no avail.

They said that according to the schedule for the printing of books and payment to contractors, the government paid half of the money on the delivery of half order, while the dispensation of the rest after all other books were given away.

The sources said the printing presses had completed the supply of 60 per cent of schoolbooks to the textbook board but the board released Rs1 billion only to them instead of Rs5 billion.

Official documents show that the printing presses have supplied 140 books out of 232 for nursery-intermediate classes to the board, while the provision of other books had totalled 50-99 per cent. Likewise, 50 per cent of the 15 ordered books have been supplied.

However...