KATHMANDU: The school-level students across the country are sure to get their textbooks before the commencement of the new academic year in the upcoming academic year, thanks to ongoing progress in the printing of the textbooks from the Janak Education Materials Centre.

A team from the Prime Minister’s Secretariat carried out the monitoring of the textbook printing jobs and directed the Centre’s officials to accomplish the tasks before the new academic year in May.

For the first time in history, the students got their textbooks with admission into the new class in the current academic year after the instruction of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal ‘Prachanda’ to meet the deadline.

During a meeting with the monitoring team from the PMO, Centre’s Managing Director Anil Kumar Jha said they were committed to supplying the school textbooks in time.

“Papers needed for the (books) printing have been bought and the printing jobs is ongoing round the clock with two shifts in a day. Supply of books in the depots is also being carried out simultaneously,” Jha said.

Printing of the textbooks has advanced with the government decision to print books of grade one to five in the private printing press and the books of grade five to 12 in the Centre.

Likewise, the Curriculum Development Centre has already issued a tender notice to select the printing presses from the private sector.

According to the Centre, it has left to print just 6.5 million textbooks out of total 17 million books needed from grade five to 12.

The Centre is preparing to print some 70,000 to 80,000 textbooks each day.