One month has passed since the new academic session was started in the State, but still, the education department has failed to provide all the textbooks to the students in the Government schools. Out of the required 55 textbooks, the education department has supplied only 10 books for the students of Class I to VIII.
The students belonging to Schedule Caste, Schedule Tribe (ST) and Other Backward Castes (OBC) are being given free textbooks by the Central Government under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA) while the remaining students are provided textbooks by the State Government. It is learnt that the delay in supply of textbooks occurred as bank guarantee of one of the publisher was found fake.
Interestingly, this publisher — Alok Printers Agra — was entrusted with task of supplying 36 books out of total 55 needed by the department. The fraudulent bank guarantee ensured a situation of panic in the department which cancelled the tender in the month of March and invited fresh tenders. The department also lodged an FIR with Raipur police station against the supplier. As per the rules, the department should give a time period of at least two months to the new publishers.
The Director of State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT), Kusum Pant told The Pioneer that the department adopted E-tendering process to expedite the process of printing the books. The department handed over the task of printing 10 textbooks each to Gem Printers and Uttaranchal Converters while Raj Publisher was asked to print 9 and Dipak publishers 7 textbooks.
Pant claimed that she was regularly monitoring the textbook availability and assured that entire books would be made available till the month of June. She said the department had made a contingency plan so that non-availability of books do not hinder academic environment of the schools. Pant claimed that the department has prepared a capsule of remedial teaching, mathematics, languages and environment and made it available to the teachers off all the primary and upper primary schools of the State so that studies are not hampered.