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Vocational students lacking textbooks even halfway through their school year in Ludhiana district
Teachers said the unavailability of books has forced them to rely on study notes or e-books uploaded on the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) website
With nearly half the academic year already gone, government school students enrolled in trades under the National Skills Qualification Framework (NSQF) are still struggling without textbooks. The delay has left both teachers and students frustrated, as the specialised books are a key part of the curriculum designed to build vocational skills.
Teachers said the unavailability of books has forced them to rely on study notes or e-books uploaded on the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB) website. But the reality is that most students do not have access to smartphones, computers or laptops at home, making it difficult to benefit from digital resources.
“Teachers do forward e-books, but without proper gadgets, we cannot use them whenever we want. Study notes are helpful, but when we have printed books for other subjects, it feels difficult to manage vocational studies without proper textbooks,” said a government school student.
Khushwinder Kaur, an NSQF teacher, pointed out that in the last 10 years, the vocational curriculum has changed twice and due to the problem of missing textbooks, the study notes need to be prepared every time. “We end up preparing notes ourselves and getting them photocopied for students. Printing e-books for each student on our own is not affordable because they run into hundreds of pages,” she said, adding that each trade requires two books, one common across trades and another subject-specific, which is yet to arrive for Class 9 students this year.
District vocational coordinator Pankaj Kaushal also admitted the issue was persistent. “Books for trades under the old vocational scheme never arrive. Under NSQF, they are almost always delayed, with half the session gone before students even get them,” he said.
When contacted, PSEB official Sharanjeet Kaur attributed the delay to staff shortage in Ludhiana. “There is no storekeeper to manage distribution, which has slowed down the process. However, one lot of NSQF books has arrived and all textbooks will reach schools by the end of this month,” she assured.
