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Uttar Pradesh: Process to buy books for Class 4 to 8 govt school students begins
All basic shiksha adhikaris have been instructed to issue purchase orders for textbooks and workbooks to contracted printers and publishers at the earliest for 2023-24 session, said director general, school education, Vijay Kiran Anand
Students of Class 4 to 8 in government primary and upper primary schools in Uttar Pradesh will not have to wait long for free textbooks in the academic session 2023-24 beginning April. The process to buy Hindi, Urdu and English medium books has been started on time.
As the basic education department is all set to introduce NCERT books in Class 1 to 3, procurement of books for Class 4 to 8 is being initiated. The order for NCERT books for Class 1 to 3 will be finalised later. A decision regarding books up to class 3 will also be taken soon, said an official aware of the matter.
Director general, school education, Vijay Kiran Anand said, “The process to procure books has been initiated on time. All basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) have been instructed to issue purchase orders for textbooks and workbooks to contracted printers and publishers at the earliest.”
In the ongoing academic session, the basic education department faced embarrassment as the books reached the students by October. The opposition party raised the issue in the Vidhan Sabha and minister of state for basic education (independent charge) Sandeep Singh had to make a statement to calm down the MLAs.
The department believes that the supply will be completed by March 2023. In this regard, director general, school education, Vijay Kiran Anand has issued guidelines to all basic education officers. All BSAs will place purchase orders on the basis of actual number of students.
Free books and workbooks will be provided to children studying in government and aided schools and aided madrasas run by the schools and social welfare department, he said.
After the supply of books, arrangements have been made for their storage in the district and transportation etc for distribution to schools. Instructions have also been given to all BSAs to continuously update the information of procurement of textbook on time.
There is already a proposal to introduce NCERT textbooks till class three from the new session. Therefore, the process of publication and purchase of books from Class 1 to 3 will start later.
If the system of distribution of books in primary and upper primary schools improves in the coming academic session, it will be a big achievement. In the current session, instructions were given for purchase of books in the last week of June.
Publishers were given a chance to supply books in 90 days from June. However, the supply of books continued even after the deadline in September. The department is still seeking details of distribution of textbooks and workbooks from the districts.
