The government has approved a total expenditure of 739 crore 13 lakh 23 thousand 139 taka (about 7.39 billion taka) for printing, binding and supplying free textbooks for class VIII and IX students for the 2027 academic year.
The approval was given at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase, chaired by Finance Minister Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury, at the Secretariat on Wednesday (Sept. 2). Of the total, 244 crore 21 lakh 57 thousand 759 taka will be spent on class VIII textbooks and 494 crore 91 lakh 65 thousand 380 taka on class IX textbooks.
The meeting approved the tender proposal for printing, binding and supplying free textbooks for the Bengali and English versions of class VIII secondary-level books, as well as for the Dakhil and vocational streams. Under this, a total of 100 tenders were floated to print, bind and supply 3 crore 93 lakh 73 thousand 515 textbooks.
After the open tender call, a total of 154 bids were submitted, of which 134 were deemed acceptable. After completing the full process, the tender evaluation committee recommended buying books from the lowest acceptable bidders for 98 of the 100 tenders. Under the recommendation, 3 crore 86 lakh 61 thousand 383 textbooks will be printed, bound and supplied at a cost of 244 crore 21 lakh 57 thousand 759 taka. This means the average cost of printing, binding (including paper) and supplying each textbook will be 63 taka 17 poisha.
Under this purchase proposal, the first lowest bidder was recommended for 92 lots and the second lowest bidder for six lots. Re-tendering was recommended for the remaining two lots. At the same meeting, the purchase proposal for printing, binding and supplying free textbooks for the Bengali and English versions of class IX secondary-level books, as well as for the Dakhil and vocational streams, was also recommended for approval.
Under this proposal, 130 organizations were recommended to print a total of 5 crore 20 lakh 50 thousand 446 copies of textbooks through 215 tenders. The total purchase cost for this work has been set at 494 crore 91 lakh 65 thousand 380 taka. These books will be printed, bound and supplied as part of the government’s plan to deliver free textbooks to students before the start of the 2027 academic year.