Dhaka: ‘Textbook Festival Day 2016’ is being celebrated across the country on Friday marking the distribution of new textbooks among the students of schools and madrashas, reports local news agency.

Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid inaugurated the festival in the capital’s Government Laboratory School in the morning through distributing new sets of textbooks among students.

Earlier on Thursday, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina formally inaugurated the distribution of free textbooks among students through giving books to some students of different schools and madrasahs at a simple ceremony at her official residence Ganohaban.

This year the government is distributing nearly 33,37,62,760 textbooks among 4,44,16,728 students of pre-primary to secondary level for 2016 academic session across the country.

In 2010, the government began distributing free textbooks among students of secondary schools. Free distribution of books among the primary school students began in 1981.