The advisory council committee on government purchase at a meeting on Tuesday approved supply deals of 5.54 crore copies of Class IX-X textbooks for 2026.
The cost of the supply deals is about Tk 479 crore under 223 tender documents.
The approval was given at a virtual meeting with finance adviser Salehuddin Ahmed in the chair from the US on Tuesday.
The finance adviser is now in the USA to attend a joint meeting of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund.聽
Earlier, on September 22, the same committee sent back the same proposal at a meeting for further scrutiny.
In August, another proposal to procure 12.61 crore copies of textbooks for Class VI-VIII were also sent back, causing concerns over meeting the printing deadline.
In 2024, orders were placed in November by the interim government that had assumed office following the ouster of the Awami League regime on August 5 amid a mass uprising, causing a nearly three-month delay in distributing all textbooks in 2025.
The National Curriculum and Textbook Board that has been distributing free textbooks on the first day of every calendar year for one and a half decades faced heavy criticisms for failing to distribute the textbooks to all primary- and secondary-level students on the first day of the current calendar year.
The board has targeted to print about 30.02 crore copies of textbooks by December 15.
Board chair Robiul Kabir Chowdhury on Tuesday said that as the advisory council committee reviewed the tender for supply deals of 5.54 crore copies of Class IX-X textbooks and found no irregularities in the processes, the board would start giving work order for printing.
鈥楤y the first week of November, all primary-level books will be printed and we are hopeful that by December all the books will be printed also,鈥� he said.
He further said that they were hopeful of distributing all books on January 1, 2026.聽聽
The board needs to print 60.67 lakh copies of pre-primary textbooks, 7.90 crore copies of Class I-V textbooks, 1.85 lakh copies of ethnic minority group textbooks, 6.43 lakh copies of additional pre-primary (4+) textbooks, 12.61 crore copies of Class VI-VIII textbooks, 5.7 crore copies of Class IX-X textbooks, 3.11 crore copies of Ibtedayi textbooks and 6,026 copies of Braille method textbooks this year.
The advisory council committee during the meeting on Monday night also approved the purchase of 15,000 tonnes of sugar and 1.3 crore tonnes of fertiliser under four proposals.
The Bangladesh Sugar and Food Industries Corporation will supply the sugar under the direct purchase method at Tk 173.37 crore to the Trading Corporation of Bangladesh.
Each kilogram of sugarcane-produced sugar will cost Tk 115.58.
The fertiliser deals will cost the government Tk 682.16 crore.
Of the deals, Karnaphuli Fertiliser Company will supply 30,000 tonne of urea at Tk 143.48 crore and SABIC Agro-nutrients Company of Saudi Arabia will suplly 30,000 tonnes of urea at Tk 155.45 crore.
Another 30,000 tonnes of fertiliser will be imported from Morocco at 208.81 crore and 40,000 tonnes of muriate of potash from Canada at Tk 174.42 crore.
