Public school books on sale in black

HERAT CITY (SW): A mounting number of students in western Herat province remain deprived of school books while the same public school books remain on sale in black.

Despite years of efforts to curb the illegal printing and sale of school books, the practice remains rampant in Herat. The local community and students blame the Education Department for being failed to stop this illegal practice and ensure availability of books for the students.

Nasima, a student in Herat, told Salam Watandar that students ranging from class 1 to 12 are faced with this issue a like. She noted that the issue was much serious in higher classes but ironically the same books are on sale in black. 

Mohammad Hanif is another student faced with the dilemma. “We do not have a number of books, we have been asking the Ministry of Education to provide us with books for the Biology, Geology, Mathematics, Dari and Physics subjects but to no avail. The black and white version of these books are available in the black market for afn 40 while the colored-versions are on afn 100”, he said. This young student added that those who cannot afford to buy books ask fellow students to share it with them.

Abdul Rauf Amini, a head of one of the public schools told Salam Watandar that millions of dollars have been provided for books to the province but the problem persist. “why on earth are these books available in the market but not in schools? Right now in this school students do not have books in different classes”, he said.

The book sellers on the other hand claim they only sell used books, and assert there is nothing wrong with that. They charged the Ministry of Education for ‘selling’ public school books to private schools.

Meanwhile, Abdul Razad, the director for education in Herat rejects these charges. “It has been years that no new books are printed for schools, so it is quite evident that the market forces have entered and played their role in meeting the demand, the printing houses are there and people take soft copies of the books there to be printed for them”.

Estimates suggest there is an annual need of some 122 million books for public schools but only 21 million fresh copies have been printed recently.

ENDS