A JSSK board meeting chaired by Education Secretary Narayan Gopal Malego on Sunday decided to hand over the distribution to a private company if Sajha fails to start the task by Monday. All operations at Sajha have been halted for the last three months owing to the protest of its staff demanding provident fund and hike in salary and perks.

Despite attempts from the ministry, the problem has not been sorted. Hardly three weeks before the new academic session commences, school-level textbooks are shelved in JSSK godowns. “It will be impossible to distribute the books on time unless the work starts this week,” said Malego. “A JSSK Board meeting scheduled for Monday will decide on the matter.”

The government is under pressure from guardians and teachers' associations to declare a 'textbook crisis' and start publication and distribution in a fast-track model. At a meeting of the High Level Textbook Monitoring Committee on Sunday, the associations demanded the government ensure timely publication and distribution of textbooks.

The JSSK, which is tasked with the publication of 22.5 million units of textbooks, has hardly readied 13.65 million units as of Saturday. Around 36 million units are needed for 5.99 million students in 29,000 public schools across the country. The ministry has allocated around Rs 1.6 billion for free distribution of textbooks to pupils of grades 1 to 10 in public schools.