The interim government on Tuesday expressed optimism that all the textbooks, as targeted, will be printed and distributed among students by this month and regretted the inconvenience caused by the delay.

“Interim government expects that printing and publication of all the textbooks will be possible by this month,” Chief Adviser’s Deputy Press Secretary Abul Kalam Azad Majumder told reporters at a media briefing at the Foreign Service Academy.

CA’s Press Secretary Shafiqul Alam, Senior Assistant Press Secretary Foyez Ahammad, Assistant Press Secretary Suchismita Tithi were present.

He referred to an unscrupulous group that emerged during the previous government which remained active this time too.

And from the very beginning, Azad said, the government faced non-cooperation that caused disruption to some extent in terms of timely printing of textbooks. “In the future, this problem will hopefully be fully overcome.”

Read: Don’t know when all students will get textbooks: Education Adviser

The Deputy Press Secretary said most of the textbooks were printed from India in the past but this time the interim government decided to print these textbooks from Bangladesh.

“There are some positive aspects of this decision,” Azad said, adding that one of the positive aspects is 10-12 lakh workers involved in this printing process who are getting benefited economically.

“The government sincerely regrets this temporary problem and delay,” he said, acknowledging the problems faced by the students for the time being.

Azad said around 40,15,67,000 textbooks were supposed to be printed and distributed among the students.

Until January 6, a total of 11, 01, 44,716 textbooks have been printed and distributed among the students.

Textbooks are also being made available online.

Read more: New textbooks to reach upazila level by November: Primary and Mass Education Secretary

Most students did not receive new textbooks on the first day of the year mainly because of printing and other relevant delays.