The Department of Education has directed the Janak Educational Materials Centre (JEMC) to provide text books of all sets in all the districts by the third week of March for the next academic session.

Director General of the Department Mahashram Sharma gave this direction to the JEMC representative in the discussion of stakeholders after there were doubts that books will not be reached this time too.

JEMC Spokesman Manohar Lamichhane said 14.2 million books have been produced so far. As per the Department's statistics, some 19.7 million books are needed for the session.

JEMC said although it has run the press 24 hours a day, delay was caused as there was problem in supplying paper.

Stakeholders said the student's right to the books should not be infringed upon in any pretext.

Although the Ministry of Education and Department have taken initiative for supplying books before the start of the session in the third week of April, there is the possibility of shortage of books this time too, as coordination was lacking among stakeholders.

source: The Himalayan Times, 10 March 2012