The government has approved the printing of free textbooks for students of classes 9 and 10 for the upcoming academic year 2026. Under this initiative, a total of 55.49 million 869 books of Bengali and English versions of class 9, Dakhil class 9, SSC and Dakhil vocational class 9 and technical trade class 9 and 10 will be printed, bound and supplied.

This approval was given at the meeting of the Advisory Council Committee on Government Procurement held at the conference room of the Cabinet Division at the Secretariat on Tuesday (October 14). The meeting was attended virtually by the chairman of the committee and financial advisor Dr. Salehuddin Ahmed.

According to the meeting sources, the books will be printed through a total of 223 tenders under this project proposed by the Secondary and Higher Education Department. The total expenditure of the government will be 479 crore 82 lakh 44 thousand 927 taka.

The Advisory Council Committee approved the proposal after reviewing it, so that new books can be delivered to students by January 2026 itself. This government initiative is expected to play an important role in improving the quality of education and increasing reading habits among students.

Meanwhile, although the proposal of two road development projects of the Noakhali Road Division under the Comilla Road Zone was supposed to be presented in the meeting, the proposals were not presented in the meeting due to the absence of appropriate representatives of the Road Transport and Highways Department.

These projects included—
1. 4-lane development project from Lakshmipur Inter-District Bus Stand to Begumganj Crossroad on the Comilla-Lalmai-Chandpur-Lakshmipur-Begumganj (R-140) road.

2. 4-lane road development project from Sonaimuri to Ramganj on the Begumganj-Sonaimuri-Ramganj (R-142) regional highway.

It is learnt that these two proposals will be re-presented in the next meeting.

It is to be noted that every year the government takes the initiative of printing books on a large scale to distribute free books to students at the beginning of the year. In order to maintain that continuity in 2026 as well, the printing activities have been approved in advance.