Ludhiana: Three months on, government schools await books

Teachers and principals have raised alarms over the unavailability, mentioning that the delay affects student learning and classroom progress; official says the remaining books will reach soon

The new academic session commenced in April, but government schools in the district are still waiting for complete sets of textbooks for students. In the last week of April, education officials had assured that all books would be delivered by May 31, but to no avail.

Schoolteachers say almost every class has been waiting for books of one or two subjects. (HT Photo)

There was a requirement of nearly 21 lakh books in the district. Books of a few subjects are still awaited. Teachers and principals have raised alarms over the unavailability, mentioning that the delay affects student learning and classroom progress.

Charanjeet Kaur Ahuja, principal of Government Senior Secondary School, Cemetery Road, said that in almost each class, books are still awaited for one or two subjects.

Jagjit Singh Mann, district president of the Government Teachers’ Union (GTU), said, “For primary classes, almost all the books arrived during the vacations. Due to unavailability of complete textbooks before the beginning of summer vacations, for the first time we were told to distribute separate homework booklets for the students. Earlier, we used to tell the students to work on the syllabus given in their textbooks. These delays hamper a lot of things. When it is known that a session starts in April, books should arrive beforehand to avoid any inconvenience.”

Although some schools maintain book banks, teachers say these are no longer enough. “Students expect fresh books at the start of the year. Many pass-outs don’t return their books, and we can’t conduct full lessons without complete material,” said a teacher.

In April, a dispute between the Punjabi Sahit Akademi and the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) over rental terms and maintenance of the board’s regional office at Punjabi Bhawan had caused distribution issues, due to which, earlier many books were stored at Government Senior Secondary School in Khanna. Later, officials had claimed that the dispute was resolved.

When contacted, Manish Kumar, superintendent at Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), said, “More than 90% of the books have arrived and distributed among block-level offices. Books for a few optional subjects are left, which are expected very soon.”