The 22-member National Curriculum Coordination Committee (NCCC) at a review meeting on the proposed education system on November 30 reached the decision that more time and scrutiny are required to bring about such a great change at the secondary level education.

A cabinet meeting to be held within a few days is likely to announce the postponement of the earlier decision to introduce the uni-track education system, sources said.

Most of the schoolteachers have no idea about the new system, an NCCC member said, adding that even the matter of training up the teachers before introducing the system was not included in the project design.

"I simply believe that introducing the proposed unified education system from the next year is not possible," the member said.

Meanwhile, the government is still in a dilemma as postponement of the uni-track education will create another crisis as the timely supply of the textbooks under the present system will not be possible while less than a month of the year is left.

"It is now quite impossible for the NCTB [National Curriculum and Textbook Board] to supply the text books under the present syllabus before March," Bangladesh Book Publishers and Sellers Association President M Abu Taher said at a press conference at the Jatiya Press Club yesterday.

He also demanded that the government make good the loss of about Tk 1,000 crore that they have already invested to publish the new textbooks under the uni-track education system.

The policymakers of the NCCC are now misleading the people by saying about the insufficient preparation for introducing the uni-track education system, Taher viewed.

The association thinks the government's decision to introduce the uni-track secondary education has already been implemented, he said, adding, "We have already completed all the formalities for publishing the new textbooks under the uni-track education system."

At the press conference, the association leaders also warned that they will not hesitate to resort to "legal or illegal" stances if the government retreats from its decision to introduce uni-track education without considering their problems.

According to the proposed uni-track education system, students would have to take up various subjects comprising disciplines from science, commerce and humanities groups in class nine under the SSC course from the next academic year.

While the education ministry claimed that the new system will help abolish a discriminatory system of education and have students acquire some elementary knowledge of the subjects, a number of academics said the new system will lower the standard of education.

Academics, schoolteachers, students and guardians under the banner of "National Committee to Resist the Proposed Uni-track Education" are carrying out extensive programmes to build up opinion against the new system.