Three weeks before the commencement of the new academic session, the state-owned Janak Shiksha Samagri Kendra is yet to print one third of the 19.5 million units of school textbooks it is required to churn out this year.

The JSSK has so far readied around 13 million units, including those from its old stock. This means some 6.5 million units will have to be printed urgently. The new academic session begins in mid-April across the country. 

The publication house, with a full capacity for 100,000 units per day, is using one third of the machines to print ballot papers for the May 14 local elections.

With the reduced capacity of printing 80,000 units of textbooks a day, it will still take more than two months to complete the task. The JSSK has requested Sajha Prakashan to publish 3 million units of textbooks. It is preparing to contract private firms to print 2 million units.

“We have directed the JSSK to complete the task in the given time at any cost,” said Sarita Aryal, a member of the Central Textbook Monitoring Committee.

The Education Ministry has allocated Rs1.88 billion for free distribution of 

textbooks to around 6.8 million students from 29,000 public schools across the country.