The JSSK board meeting, led by Education Secretary Narayan Gopal Malego, on Tuesday decided not to renew the contract with Sajha from this year. The decision follows failure of Sajha for timely delivery of school level textbooks despite repeated calls to meet deadline for the new academic session which begins on April 15, according to officials at the Ministry of Education.

The ministry was under pressure after guardians and teachers’ associations demanded to declare a ‘text book crisis’ and start distribution in a fast-track model.

With the new academic session hardly three weeks away, all textbooks meant for the public schools are shelved in the JSSK godowns. Sajha has halted all its operations for the last three months owing to the tussle between the management and the staff over salary and provident fund. The problem has not been sorted despite intervention from the Ministry of Education.

Sajha had been distributing textbooks published by the JSSK since the late 1980s. “There was no alternative to ending the contract,” said Malego, who also heads the JSSK broad. But he hinted that the decision could be reviewed next year if Sajha improves its management. The JSSK has decided to appoint agents at the local level within a week to ensure timely distribution of textbooks. Apart from its central office, Sajha had been using six regional offices and 20 branch offices to distribute the textbooks in addition to 847 agents and around 6,000 local distributors.

The broad has formed a five-member committee under Anil Kumar Jha, executive director at JSSK, for the selection of local agents. “We are planning to mobilise the local agents of Sajha if they meet our criteria,” said Jha. Out of its target of 22.5 million units, the JSSK has already printed around 14 million units of textbooks which are stored in its six godowns located in Biratnagar, Kathmandu, Bharatpur, Butwal, Nepalgunj and Dhangadhi. Around 36 million units of textbooks are needed for 5.99 million students in 29,000 public schools across the country. The ministry has allocated around Rs 1.6 billion for free distribution of textbooks to pupils of grades 1 to 10 in public schools.