Govt school students await books in new session

Sameer Singh
Tribune News Service
Bathinda, April 20

Even as three weeks have elapsed since the new academic session (2019-2020) began, students of government schools are yet to receive books of a few subjects from the Education Department. As a result, studies in government primary as well as high schools are getting affected with each passing day.

A majority of schools in the district have not received books of many subjects. On a recent visit to some of the government schools in the district, the Bathinda Tribune team found that while the academic session had started 20 days ago on April 1, students have been studying without textbooks.

In Government Elementary School, GB Nagar, students of Class III had not received books of English, as a result of which teachers were busy teaching them basic concepts of the subject.

Similarly, in Government High School, Ghanaiya Nagar, students of Class VII have not received books of science, maths and English grammar, and students of Class VIII did not get books of Punjabi and maths. Students of Class IX had not received books of mathematics and Punjabi while students of Class X were without books of Hindi and social science. Meanwhile, in the primary wing of a government school, Class I students did not receive books of maths, students of Class III did not receive books of English, while Class IV students had not received books of English and environmental science.

A majority of government schools in the district have not received books of any subjects so far. In total, books of as many as four subjects in primary classes, five subjects in middle and books of 11 subjects for higher classes have not arrived in the district so far. Teachers are either managing books from book banks —collected from students who have passed the examinations — or they have simply been discussing basic concepts related to the respective subjects for the past three weeks.

Teachers from a government school said while it was manageable to teach students other subjects without books, teaching mathematics and science was not possible.

Sandeep Kumar, Assistant Project Coordinator of SSA, said “We have distributed all the books that we had received from the state Education Department. As and when we receive rest of the books from the department, we will distribute them as well.”

Study sans books

• In Government High School, Ghanaiya Nagar, students of Class VII have not received books of science, maths and English grammar, Class VIII did not get books of Punjabi and maths, Class IX have not received books of maths and Punjabi while Class X pupils are without books of Hindi and social science
• In the primary wing, Class I did not receive books of maths, Class III did not receive English books, while Class IV is without English and environmental science books