Govt starts distributing free textbooks among students

The government on Thursday started distributing free textbooks for 2026 academic year among the students on the first day of this year.

Officials at the National Curriculum and Textbook Board earlier said that all textbooks would be delivered to the primary students on Thursday.

About 20 per cent free secondary-level textbooks are unlikely to be distributed among the students on the day.

Till Wednesday, as per the NCTB, 96.44 per cent of ibtedayi (primary level of Madrassah education), 89.69 per cent of Class VI, 73.01 per cent of Class VII, 61.32 per cent of Class VIII, and 89.82 per cent of Class IX books were ready.

As of Wednesday, 95.08 per cent of ibtedayi, 80.56 per cent of Class VI, 58.38 per cent of Class VII, 46.82 per cent of Class VIII, and 83.63 per cent of Class IX books were given to the upazila authorities for delivering to the students on Thursday.

Most recently on December 28 at a programme, the NCTB made all 647 Bangla and English versions of free textbooks for 2026 academic year available online on its website: www.nctb.gov.bd before distributing their hardcopies among the students for the first time since 2010, when the government first started distributing free textbooks.

In the earlier years, free textbooks were made available online only after distributing the hardcopies.

The board faced huge criticism earlier in 2025 for failing to provide textbooks on time, delaying the delivery as late as April, four months after their classes had started.

After the trouble, the board decided to start the printing of 2026 textbooks from early 2025 and set a target to print about 30.02 crore books by November 2025 by eventually failed to reach the target.