Students aiming to sit for the Class X (Matriculation) examination under Odisha Board in 2014 are now a worried lot. Even as the new academic session has begun about a fortnight ago, the students are yet to get their hands on the textbooks for they are not available in the markets.
The Board of Secondary Education (BSE), which has the sole authority to design the course, print the textbooks and conduct the examinations, is now found seriously in a mess as it has not yet printed the requisite textbooks. The Board this year decided to change the Class X syllabus and accordingly introduced as many as 17 titles of book.
It was also decided that the Board would print at least four lakh books in each title and the textbooks should have been on the bookstands at least two months before the commencement of the new academic session in April.
"Shockingly enough, it has already been two weeks into April and not a single book is available in the market. The students wishing to write the Matriculation examination in 2014 have already lost a fortnight and as it appears all titles of the books may not reach the students during summer vacation," rued a school teacher here blaming the Board for putting the students in agony.
The Board on the other hand claims that they have procured sufficient number of books in at least ten titles and the remaining books are in the pipeline. Board authorities are hoping that by April 20 all the textbooks for class X would be available with the dealers.
"We have with us at least 3 lakh copies each of the ten titles and a little over two lakh copies of another four titles. Other textbooks are in the process of printing and they would be available in the market by April 20," said the BSE president DP Nanda on Saturday.
He also added that the distribution of available books have already started and hoped that copies of each title are with the students before the onset of summer vacation.
But the teachers, parents, guardians and book dealers are not prepared to buy the explanation of the Board authorities saying that the Board has not printed sufficient number of textbooks this year and most of the books would be sold at a premium in the market for short supply.
"Four lakh books in each title would be highly inadequate as over six lakh students have enrolled themselves in class X this year across the State," informed another school teacher alleging that printing fewer books than required would encourage hoarding by the book dealers thereby leading to black-marketing.