Samir Karaba, president of Tunisia’s chamber of manufacturers of school books has confirmed that starting 29 April, 2023, the printing of textbooks and notebooks has begun in preparation for the academic year 2023-2024.
Karaba said that printing presses specializing in school books needed nearly 5,500 tons of paper to print 13 million books for the next school year.
He also expressed his satisfaction with the daily paper production of Kasserine-based paper and alfa pulp producer National Society of Cellulose and Alfa Paper (SNCPA) that would, according to him, meet market needs by August 2023. SNCPA has already started the distribution of paper for school book printing. As a first batch, approximately 570 tons of paper was distributed to private printing presses accredited by the Tunisian Ministry of Education’s National Pedagogical Center, provided that the daily requirements of the printing presses be met within the framework of manufacturing 5,000 tons of paper for school books.
SNCPA had stopped production three years ago, but resumed operations in October 2022 after the success of its initial experiments by operating thermal boilers and maintaining and restarting its machines.
In a related development, during a ministerial working session devoted to the follow-up of the new school year 2023-2024, Tunisia’s Prime Minister Najla Bouden stressed the need to provide all necessary means to make the school year 2023-2024 a success, especially after the resumption of SNCPA, which supplies the market with paper intended for the printing of school books.
Looking back, text book printing for the academic year 2022-2023 sparked a great controversy due to the shortage of paper as the Ministry of Education invited international bids to print textbooks for the first time due to the high prices set by local printers, even while the chamber of manufacturers of school books considered this measure a blow to local competitors.
