Textbooks books for national distribution ceremony today in Srilanka

The national ceremony to distribute textbooks will be in high school for girls, Kandy today under the patronage of Prime Minister DM Jayaratne and Education Minister Bandula Gunawardena, the Ministry of Education. Education Publications Department has printed 34 million copies of textbooks required for 2012. The ministry has allocated Rs 3 billion euros for the printing process.

Requirement to book last year was 27 million. The free program includes textbooks 437 kinds of books on various topics, which will be distributed among students

from one to thirteen students in grade. The ministry plans to deliver the books before the school holidays.

Approximately 514 types of instruction manuals for teachers are to be distributed with textbooks free text, they add.

All the manuals were printed in two parts. Education Publications Department believes that this will reduce the weight of school bags for students.

Textbooks are also sent to provincial distribution centers. Education Publications Department has taken steps to improve the quality of textbooks. The World Bank Education Sector Development Project is to help improve their quality.

The ministry also plans to build a storage complex for textbooks. This will help to store the excess text books without damaging them, the sources added.