Peshawar [Pakistan], May 13 : Students and teachers have been struggling with course management due to shortage of books in government schools in Pakistan's Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, Dawn reported.
Speaking to Dawn, students and teachers of the government high schools said that the new academic year started in the first week of April but there were still facing shortage of textbooks. During the past 20 years, students used to get books from the provincial government free of cost at the start of the academic year in April.
However, two years back, the textbook costs reached more than Pakistani Rupees (PKR) 10 billion and the government decided to deliver only half of the required books, instructing the school administration to take old books from the students promoted to the next class and fulfil the remaining book requirements.
In 2025, the textbook board has claimed that it has printed all the books requested by the education department. However, students and teachers have complained about a shortage of books.
Speaking to Dawn, a teacher from a government high school in Peshawar cantonment area said that there was shortage of certain books for classes - sixth, seventh and eighth. However, the situation is worse for the students of ninth and 10th class as most of them were without books.
He said if there were more than 40 students studying in class 9th, the government has only given five new books of physics and 15 of biology, while the situation remains similar for other subjects.
He said, "We have collected old books from the promoted students but the majority of such books were in bad condition."
The teacher of another government high school in the city area said many students who sat at the recent annual examination for class 10th had not given their books back. He said, "Now, they face a shortage of both new and old books."
Teachers have complained that the book shortage has forced them to ask students to buy books from the market, Dawn reported.
Meanwhile, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Textbook Board chairman Syed Mohammad Farrul Saqlain said the board had completed the printing of all books that the elementary and secondary education department had demanded.
He said the board had handed over all printed books to the distribution centers established by the government in different parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.
He said, "We print whatever is demanded by the education department. We published 34 million books on the demand of the education department for the current academic year."
An official of the education department claimed that the book crisis has emerged as authorities were not given correct data of students and majority of students did not return their old books to the schools and even those, which were submitted, were in bad shape.
A leader of the School Officers Association, a teachers association of high and higher secondary schools, urged government to ensure the immediate delivery of free textbooks to students to prevent further learning loss, Dawn reported.
He said teachers had asked students to share textbooks with each other in classrooms as a solution to shortage of books, however, those who were not having books struggled to do homework. He said, "The government should either provide new books to all students or abolish this policy of free books and ask parents to purchase books for their children from the market."