There is a severe shortage of textbooks, as only 28,210,600 text books have been printed for the year 2018 although the total requirement is 41,189,027, according to the Ceylon Teachers’ Union (CTU).
Secretary of CTU Joseph Stalin stated that, the teachers too are affected by this situation as the amount of textbooks needed for the teachers has not been included in the printed textbooks.
He further stated that printing a lesser number of textbooks on the basis of re-use is problematic when Rs 4,385 million is allocated from the budget for textbook printing.
According to Secretary, calling for tenders of the Educational Publications Department for reprinting 2018 textbooks, in the month of January 2018, is a joke.
Parents have to queue up to buy textbooks as the students have either not received textbooks or received damaged textbooks, the CTU charged.
By continuously allowing this to happen, it is evident that this whole situation is created for making money out of selling textbooks while cutting back on the printing of books, according to the announcement.
CTU urges the government and relevant authorities to provide the free textbooks to pupils properly and on time.
