Many MCD school students yet to receive books for current session

Many MCD school students in Delhi haven't received textbooks for summer vacation, impacting education and prompting parents to consider buying them.

New Delhi:As summer vacation begins across the city, many students in Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD)-run schools have still not received all their textbooks for the current academic session.

Students were supposed to be provided textbooks in April and the last working day was May 8, with holidays starting from Monday (Photo for representation)

Students were supposed to be provided textbooks in April and the last working day was May 8, with holidays starting from Monday. Teachers said the delay is impacting the students’ education.

“We face this problem every year. We have not been able to teach the students properly or assign homework for the summer vacation,” said Naveen Sangwar (42), general secretary of the Akhil Delhi Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, a union for MCD school teachers.

Sangwar teaches students of classes 4 and 5 at an MCD school in the Rohini zone.

Other teachers said they had been carrying out the government’s Foundational Literacy and Numeracy (FLN) program, which aims to ensure that every student has basic writing, reading, and mathematics skills.

“They have asked us to conduct a baseline assessment through the FLN, but how are we suppose to clear the curriculum without the textbooks? The MCD had earlier told us that we would get all the data online, but the site does not work either,” said Vinay Tanwar, an MCD teacher at a school in Karol Bagh.

Teachers also highlighted other problems such as delay in getting funds for MCD schools and a severe shortage of teachers and staff.

Lawyer Asho Agrawal had filed a PIL in the Delhi High Court last month, regarding the delay of providing textbooks to all government schools in Delhi. “On April 30, the court directed that textbooks be given to students before the summer vacations. Students from MCD-run schools and those run by the Delhi government are facing this issue,” he said.

Parents said they are confused with the situation. “My child is very good at studies, but has not received textbooks so far this year. Soon, we will have no option but to buy the textbooks ourselves as we don’t want his education to suffer,” said a parent of an MCD school student, requesting anonymity.

MCD officials did not respond to HT’s request for a comment on the situation.