Grants for books lying unspent as lang dept runs out of stock
The students of government schools are suffering as the school libraries don't have books prescribed to them. The school authorities, on the other hand, say that they were helpless as the said books were not available with the language department at Punjabi Bhawan.
The students of government schools are suffering as the school libraries don't have books prescribed to them. The school authorities, on the other hand, say that they were helpless as the said books were not available with the language department at Punjabi Bhawan.
The government schools had received funds in June and got directions recently to purchase books from language department at Punjabi Bhawan.
One of the government school principals on condition of anonymity said, “We had sent teachers to get the library textbooks from the language department, but the textbooks were out of stock. We have been asked to wait.”
One of the officials from language department, who wished not to be named, said, “We have already given books to about 100 government schools and some schools are demanding books which are out of stock. So we have sent the demand to the headquarters in Patiala. The books which the schools have demanded are - Punjab written by Mohinder Singh Randhawa, Punjabi-English dictionary and Bal and Gyan Sahet. However, the schools are mostly recommending books in Punjabi language, but we have few books in English and Hindi languages also. Moreover, we are providing the books to government schools at 50% discount.”
Sadhu Singh, block primary education officer, Doraha, said, “We received no written directions from DEO (elementary) on how to utilise the grants sent in the month of June. Recently I received verbal orders to purchase books for library from language department.”
When contacted, Balbir Kaur, director language department, Patiala, she said no book was out of stock. “Books are available with us and will be sent to all the districts of Punjab,” she said.
The government primary and middle schools had received `3,000, while high and senior secondary schools had received `10,000 on June 11 to purchase library books.
