Punjab Textbook Board (PTB) has refused to provide free textbooks to about 25 million students of government schools in the next academic year due to non-payment of dues, pending with provincial governments, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Wednesday.

In this regard, Punjab Textbook Board has written a letter to Punjab’s School Education Department warning that the students of government schools will not be given free textbooks till the clearance of previous dues.

In its letter, the PTB wrote that the Punjab Government owes Rs10 billion to the Textbook Board blaming that this happened due to the wrong policy of former education minister Murad Raas who printed books worth Rs18 billion from contractors.

The letter further revealed that the government paid only Rs8 billion out of a total of Rs18 billion to PTB due to which free books could not be printed in the year 2024 in case Rs10 billion would not paid.

In Punjab, government school students get free books worth 3,000 per person per year while the finance department allocated only Rs3.5 billion for free books this year and this amount is insufficient for printing books.

“If no more money is released, it is not possible to cover the books till the end of the year”, PTB warned.

Reporter Imran Younas