School starts in Mumbai, but Class 9 books are not yet ready

Mumbai city news: The textbooks based on a new syllabus are not available in the market

When Fatimadevi English School, Malad, reopened on Thursday, Class 9 students and their teachers had no idea what to do in class.

Photo for representation

Why? The textbooks based on a new syllabus are not available in the market. The state board’s textbooks have been delayed as Balbharti, its textbook publishing bureau, could not print them on time.

The syllabus for Class 7 and Class 9 changed this year and Balbharti was tasked with publishing 12.5 lakh textbooks altogether.

“We were prepared to publish new books for one class, but at the last minute, we were told books for both classes will change,” said Sunil Magar, director, Balbharti. “We don’t have the machinery to cope.”

Magar said the books had to be published from scratch. “We had to generate content, check for errors and change layout.” While Magar said mathematics for English medium was released last week, science and social studies are expected by Monday. “We have not received math books,” said an Andheri shop-owner.

Some schools decided to revise last year’s syllabus . “We can manage for two weeks, but after that it will be difficult,” said Father Jude Fernandes, principal, St Mary’s School, Mazgaon.

“We were expecting the delay, so we scheduled concepts and core topics,” said Rakhi Mukherjee, principal, Utpal Shanghvi Global School, Juhu.