Printing school textbooks delayed by shortage of paper and other inputs

Printing of school textbooks would be delayed due to a shortage of paper and other necessary material besides power cuts, Commissioner General of Educational Publications Department P. N. Ilaperuma said yesterday (24).

Speaking to journalists in Colombo, Ilaperuma said that there would also be delays in the distribution of textbooks to schools due to the fuel shortage.

“Power cuts have had a significant impact on printing textbooks,” he said.

The Commissioner General of Educational Publications said adequate amounts of paper, ink and other material had not been imported due to the dollar shortage, and added that COVID-19 had also adversely impacted the printing of books. “During the lockdowns, a backlog was created, and it is still being cleared”, he said.

“Several sections of the state printing corporation and some private printers were closed due to the pandemic. This delayed the completion of the projects. Last year 45% of the school textbooks were printed at the state Printing Corporation but the backlog has also created problems in printing textbooks,” he said.

Ilaperuma said that around 32.5 million textbooks should be printed in 2022 at an estimated cost of Rs. 2.3 .

The Educational Publications Department said they were however trying to print all textbooks before the commencement of the next school term.

Last week, head of the SLPP union of the Department of Government Printing, Nihal Chandrasiri said that the printing of school text books, several lottery tickets, application forms and several other essential documents might be affected due to the shortage of paper.

He added that all printers were facing the problem.

“The Department has enough paper to manage for the time being. But we have not got new stocks. Since there is not much of a buffer stock, it’s doubtful that we can operate without issues,” he said.

Chandrasiri said that they were facing difficulties in importing paper due to the shortage of dollars.

Government Printer, G. K. D. Liyanage said that they were facing some issues with printing certain products.

(RK)