Mar 26, Kathmandu:   The Janak Education Materials Centre (JEMC) Ltd has assured that it would supply school textbooks to all districts by mid-April.

According to Centre managing director Anil Kumar Jha, all districts will receive the text books this time before a new academic session begins. The Centre has the responsibility of printing and supplying 15 million school textbooks from grades 6 to ten this year. So far, the printing of 13.5 million copies of textbooks completes.

Talking to the media, Centre Jha said that 90 per cent of the printing has been completed. Last year, the Centre was assigned to print 20 million textbooks, but this time the government switched to the private sector to publish the textbooks for grades four and five, reducing the Centre’s load.

The new academic session this year is beginning from coming April 14 or Baisakha 1, the very first day of the Nepali New Year 2080 BS. The printing goes on round-the-clock and the Centre plans to complete it by the next few days, it is said.

Last year, the Centre was assigned to print 20 million textbooks and ballot papers and it faced issues due to a lack of timely availability of papers for printing. Centre’s market management chief Chitra Raj Acharya said the supplies of books will take place attaching priority to the rural districts and districts which are far from the Kathmandu Valley in the first phase.

The distribution of books will begin on April 3 and will take two to six days for transporting them to all the districts. It is expected to take up to six days to supply books to mountainous and some hilly districts and two days to other districts. The Centre has already selected its distributors. The distribution will also take place from its Central Office Management Department and province offices in all seven provinces.