As Punjab kids look for books, board dusts its dismal record

Rachna Khaira in Jalandhar

Those who manage school education in Punjab, this might hold a lesson. First, what they know very well: over 18 lakh students study in over 20,000 government schools in the state. And most of them don’t have a complete set of books. The current academic session ends five months from now. This is also fairly well-known that each year the Punjab State Education Board (PSEB) delays providing books. “But this time, it is too much,” says a student. 

But why? Read on. Since its inception in 1969, the board has had a flawed arrangement of buying and printing school books. Most state education boards in the country are adopting a single-tender policy for getting the books printed for government schools. The PSEB floats two separate tenders, one for purchasing the printing paper and second for hiring the printers.

Inquiries reveal the board requires around 7,600 tons of paper every year to get the books printed for government schools. While this year, since it had an old stock of over 1,100 tons, it floated a tender for 6,500 tons of paper in October last year. 

Following an assurance by former education minister Daljit Cheema in the Assembly, the PSEB was to allocate tender only for 'virgin quality paper' and at rates similar to the one fixed by the director general, stores and disposals (DGS&D) of the government of India. As DGS&D did not have any rates fixed for the virgin quality paper, the PSEB officials could not find a solution and withheld the process by over one-a-half months.

So, the board floated a second tender to purchase 'Type A' paper. But this time only single bidder came, so, the tender was not allotted.

It was only in December last year that the board awarded tender to two Delhi-based companies. While one was to provide over 3,500 tons of paper, the other 3,000 tons. While the former firm supplied the paper on time, the other “ran away”. The board could not float another tender as due to the Assembly elections, the model code of conduct came into force in January. 

PSEB officials continued to sit pretty till June, well after the Congress-led government took over. The academic session had begun in March. The process of two separate tenders gives impression of corruption. The investigations reveal that a full-fledged network of over 24 Jalandhar-based printers is making the situation worse. A top official, on condition of anonymity, said these printers work in connivance with board’s senior officials. 

“The small-time printers do not want to invest much in buying costly paper to avoid risk of the paper being rejected for quality,” says an official from the Education Department. 

The board instead of subject-wise prioritizing the 5,000 tons of the available paper, distributed them equally among all the printers. Result: the printers could only partly publish the books. 

Incumbent PSEB chairman Krishan Kumar has ordered an inquiry. Apart from finding the cause of the delay, the responsibility will also be fixed on the officials who could not take necessary action to provide books on time. 

Kumar said that the Delhi-based firm that “ran away” has been blacklisted and an inquiry ordered to fix responsibility on officials who caused such a huge delay. 

“Also from this year, a single tender will be floated for the printing the books. We are planning to get the books for the next academic session published by January next year,” said Kumar. Since it may take some more months to provide books to the children, the board has uploaded the entire content on its website for teachers and the students to download it.