Kathmandu: Though a report on school textbook distribution submitted a month ago revealed embezzlement of hundreds of millions of rupees, Education Secretary Shankar Prasad Pandey is yet to make public the report.

A nine-member probe team led by former education secretary Jaya Ram Giri had submitted the report to the ministry on July 8.

The recommendations have not been circulated to the concerned line agencies for preparing student statistics. The report had suggested to the Department of Education to prepare a reliable student statistics.

The report found that school head teachers had been reporting more than the actual number of students in their schools and the district education offices did not bother to verify the number.

Secretary Pandey said he had handed over the report to Joint-Secretary Prem Kumar Rai for study. However, Rai said he has not received the report yet. Secretary Pandey did not fix the date to publish the report and said the report implementation will be made from the ministerial level. Education Minister Ganga Lal Tuladhar had directed the secretary to implement the recommendations.

The books had to be distributed to some 6.4 million students from grade one to 10.

However, only 3.2 million students have received the textbooks. Of Rs 1,625 million earmarked for the textbook distribution, Rs 738 million has been misappropriated, according to the report recovered by The Himalayan Times.

School headmasters who over-report the students’ number in order to get more budget, school supervisors who approve the student figures and district education offices are responsible for the multi-million rupees misappropriation.

The report has suggested that the Education Ministry and the Department of Education make the student data reliable. Source at the ministry said Pandey has no intention of implementing the report as he is thinking of passing the remaining three months of his tenure before his retirement.

source: The Himalayan Times