Unauthorized guidebooks
Publishers, writers shirk blame
Publishers and writers of unauthorised guidebooks are applying various devices to outwit the National Curriculum and Text Book Board authorities who have initiated a move to take action against the wrongdoers.
A number of publishers flatly denied their involvement in marketing such illegal guidebooks and blamed ‘invisible hands’ for the offence while the authors claimed they did not write the guidebooks and that the publishers used their names without permission.
The publishers said that ‘some unknown people’ had printed and distributed in the market the guidebooks some of which included the entire original textbooks which none other than the textbook board was authorised to publish.
Both the writers and publishers said they had filed general diaries with respective police stations in this regard.
Recently, the NCTB initiated a move to take action against 58 college teachers who allegedly wrote or edited guidebooks for the higher secondary Bangla textbook.
It was found that the guidebooks included the original textbook published by the NCTB. There are labels reading ‘with the textbook’ on the covers of the guidebooks published by four companies.
‘No one can copy the textbook and teachers cannot write guidebooks without permission of the authorities concerned. We have requested the Directorate of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education to take action against the teachers found involved,’ NCTB chairman Mostafa Kamaluddin told New Age.
‘Teachers can defend themselves if they deny their involvement. But we want exemplary punishment to the offenders,’ he added.
NCTB officials said the publishers included the original textbook in their unauthorised guidebooks as a marketing ploy which affected the sale of the board’s Bangla textbook for higher secondary students. Only a small number of textbooks were sold in the current academic year. Such flagrant violation of copyright rules prompted the NCTB to form an investigation team which found involvement of quite a number of teachers and guidebook publishers in the wrongdoing.
The teachers found involved in guidebook writing included some government college teachers. Most of them, however, denied the charge.
‘I have no links to any guidebook publishers. I do not know why and how they used my name as the writer,’ Ramzan Ali, a college teacher whose name was used in Mizan Library’s guidebook told New Age. ‘Even they gave wrong information about me. They described me as a professor in their guidebook but the fact is I am an associate professor. They also introduced me as the head of Bangla Department at Dhaka Commerce College which I am not,’ said Ramzan, an associate professor at Dhaka Commerce College.
He told New Age that he had filed a general diary and sent legal notice to the guidebook publisher.
The other teachers also denied their involvement and claimed they had filed general diary or sent legal notice to the publishers concerned.
NCTB officials said that so far four publishing houses had been found to be involved in marketing the higher secondary Bangla guidebook. They are Mizan Library, Galaxy Publications, Lecture Publications Ltd and Tamanna Publications – all located at Bangla Bazar in the Old Dkaka.
New Age obtained a copy of the guidebook published by Lecture Publications Ltd with the words ‘with the textbook’ on its cover.
But Shariful Alam, chief executive officer of Omicon Group of which Lecture Publication is a sister concern, claimed that they had not been linked in any way to the marketing of the unauthorised guidebooks.
‘After coming to know about the matter, we filed a general diary with the local police,’ Shariful told New Age on Wednesday.
Some publishers at Bangla Bazar told New Age that the guidebook of Lecture Publication was available in the market only a few days ago. ‘When reports were published in newspapers about the matter, they quickly withdrew the books from the market,’ said a publisher who wanted not to be identified.
Galaxy Publications, another alleged publisher of unauthorised guidebooks, also claimed that some unknown people used its name in the books. But publisher could not name the offenders. ‘We did not publish any guidebooks; some people have done it to damage our reputation,’ Tofazzal Hossain, manager, marketing, of Galaxy Publications, told New Age on Wednesday.
When asked why they did not ask police for legal action earlier, he said, ‘This guidebook had not been sold at Bangla Bazar, but in other markets in the capital.’
On Wednesday, Galaxy’s higher secondary Bangla guidebook was found available at Tk 220 at Comilla Book House at Bangla Bazar.
