Free Sindh textbooks being illegally sold to scrap dealers; probe ordered

GHOTKI: The Education Department has ordered an investigation into the selling of free textbooks of Sindh Text Board to scrap dealers in Badin district, ARY News reported on Thursday.

Sources close to the Education Department told ARY News that the books of Sindh Text Board, which were supposed to be distributed free of charge among students of government schools, were being sold to scrap dealers in Golarchi Tehsil of Badin District.

Terming the incident ‘shameful’, the relevant education department ordered an immediate investigation into the matter and took the books into custody.

The education department has warned of strict action against those involved in this ‘shameful act’. It is pertinent to mention here that the distribution of free textbooks was began two days ago.

Earlier in 2022, Sindh Education department officials were given clean chit in the inquiry committee report after the issue of selling textbooks to a scrap dealer came to light in Ghotki.

Read More: Ghotki: Books sold in scrap were of private publishers, says probe

The textbooks of 2016 to 2020 were sold in scrap in Ghotki and after the anguish on the matter, the Sindh government took notice of the matter and constituted a committee to probe the issue.

The inquiry report stated that the books sold in a scrap were not of Sindh Textbook Board (STBB) but were of the private publishers, or semi-government, who run their educational institutes with the Education department.

The sold books were not the property of the provincial government and neither the man who sold the books was an employee of the Education department.