Prices of Sindh Textbook Board books soared after hike in publishing cost: secretary

KARACHI: The prices of the Sindh Textbook board’s books have soared in the market with its secretary Hafeez Ullah Mehar claiming that it happened owing to a hike in publishing cost, ARY NEWS reported on Thursday.

According to the secretary, it was long ago since the wages of the laboureres printing these books have been increased and this time they refused to perform their duties without a pay rise.

“Even the prices of raw material used in publishing these books has increased by 100 percent,” he said and justified the increase saying that the books from other publishers have witnessed an increase by 100 percent since 2017.

Secretary Sindh Textbook Board rejected reports of shortage of any books in the market saying that they immediately supply books as soon as any demand arises.

“We have so far provided over 20.8 million books of classes one to 10,” he said.

It is pertinent to mention here that the Sindh government has given its stance on the Single National Curriculum and rejected to implement the uniform curriculum being introduced by the federal government.

Sindh Education Minister Sardar Shah said in a statement that the provincial government has already shown its reservations on the uniform curriculum. He added that education and curriculum are provincial matters.

Sardar Shah said that the provincial government was not in a position to implement the uniform curriculum without any amendment. He said that the federal government could not impose its decision on the Sindh government as the provinces have powers whether to accept the uniform curriculum or not under the 18th amendment.