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‘The Available Infrastructure Should Be Used Optimally’

—RAMESH NATH JOSHI

RAMESH NATH JOSHI is the general manager at the Janak Educational Materials Center (JEMC), the government-owned institution responsible for publishing textbooks and other educational materials for the country. Joshi spoke to SANJAYA DHAKAL about the challenges and prospects of the organization. Excerpts:

How is the JEMC helping the country?

After it was established in 2013 B.S. JEMC has been engaged in publishing textbooks in the country. However, our role is not limited to publishing books. Our vision and our mission are inter-linked with our nationalism. Take for instance, the series of Nepali textbooks like "Mahendra Mala" which have helped the people learn the Nepali language. Besides, we provide textbooks at a uniform price all over the country. Our books cost less than half of similar books published by others.

In previous years, there used to be complaints that JEMC delivered books very late. What do you say?

Indeed, there was this problem of late delivery until few years ago. However, for the last two years, I have taken this as a challenge and focused our efforts in resolving this problem. As a result, last year we could reach books on time in 95 percent of places. This year this has reached 100 percent. That is why you will not find news reports about late delivery of books these days. In fact, we have chalked out a strategy. We first despatch books to rural areas followed by hilly region and urban areas. So, there would be no more complaints of late delivery. We send the books way before the academic session starts.

How is the infrastructure at the JEMC?

Ours is the largest government-owned infrastructure for printing. We print 16 million books every year. Around 900 people are employed here. There is no institution like JEMC anywhere else which has been single-handedly printing the textbooks of a country. The infrastructure at JEMC is a national treasure. In fact, our infrastructure can be better utilized. If the government wants to, it can make JEMC an umbrella body for printing in the country. Though printing educational materials is our first priority, we can also print other things. We have the technology and manpower for doing that. This will help stop the outflow of around six billion rupees to foreign countries, especially India, for printing. The government alone provides one billion to two billion rupees worth of printing job every year. As we have the infrastructure, we can handle these printing jobs inside the country itself. At present, JEMC pays three million to four million rupees in taxes and around 15 million rupees in VAT to the government. Very few government-owned institutions are running so successfully. In this context, I would like to add that although there are voices for privatization, the authorities and everyone concerned should take note of what happened to the privatized institutions. In the name of privatization, there is an effort to destroy strong institutions.

The private sector is also engaged in printing textbooks, especially for boarding schools. Why can’t the JEMC tap that market?

We have a big market share of textbooks. Our annual turnover is around 400 million rupees, whereas that of the private sector is around 30 million to 40 million rupees. If we are given the authority, we can definitely print quality textbooks for the boarding schools, too. Moreover, I can tell you, the price of our books would be far less. This year, we have taken steps to print English translations also.

What are the new steps being taken by the JEMC?

This is the age of Information Technology. We have to take this new development, too, in our stride. Just recently, we managed to launch our website (janakedu.com). If we are authorized, we are planning to have all our books posted on the Internet so that anybody can download them from anywhere else for a certain charge. The Nepali diaspora is distributed all over the world. Nepalese families living overseas can download Nepali books for their young ones, who might otherwise be totally cut off from Nepalese culture. In fact, we have plans to utilize the Internet in such a way that even our regional offices would be able to download necessary books.

What are the market potentials for the printing sector?

Apart from the domestic market, which is also expanding, there are potentials across our national frontiers, too. Printing not only requires high technology but is also a labor-intensive sector. Here, the workers have to blacken their hands in their job. That is why in developed countries, the attraction of workers toward this sector is decreasing. The labor cost, too, is very high there. We can divert the printing jobs of magazines like Newsweek, Time, travel journals, calendars etc here if we really concentrate on uplifting this sector. It will definitely be quite less costly for publishers to print in Nepal than, say, in Singapore or Thailand. Anybody will be interested to print from here if we offer lower costs. The potentials are tremendous, but there is no vision.