The new academic session has started but displaying callousness; the education department is yet to provide textbooks to the students of Government schools. It is learnt that the books can take at least a month more to reach the hands of the students severely hampering the studies in the Government schools of the State in the process.
Out of the required 55 textbooks the education department is able to supply only 13 books for the students of class I to VIII and these books too have not reached the schools yet. The students belonging to Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) are provided free textbooks by Central Government under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) while the remaining students are provided textbooks by the State Government.
The task of printing, drafting and supplying textbooks is on the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT). When contacted the Director of SCERT, Kusum Pant told The Pioneer that the all the books would be made available to the districts till April 10. The books are sent to block offices from offices of District Education Officers (DEOs) from where they reach the respective schools. This process too is time consuming. Pant said that DEOs have been asked to forward these books within two days of their receipts. The department has also made a contingency plan so that absence of books does not hinder academic environment of the schools.
Under the plan SCERT had prepared a capsule of remedial teaching, mathematics, languages and environment and made it available to the teachers of all the primary and upper primary schools of the State last year itself so that studies are not hampered. It is now fourth year in a row when the department was not able to provide the textbooks on time. last year the bank guarantee provided by one of the publisher was found to be fake due to which the books arrived after more than two months in the schools. This year the department has handed over the task of printing to Durgesh Printers Mathura and Dipak Printers and Raj Publishers (both Haldwani).
One of a teacher posted in a school located in Beeronkhal block of Pauri district said that the books should be provided on the starting day of the session. She said that the students as well as the teachers get complacent when the textbooks are not available.