After admissions, parents stare at troubles of book, uniform buying

With the new academic session knocking at the door, problems pertaining to long queues of parents at book stores, expensive books and stationery, schools referring specific outlets for purchasing books and dresses have again come to the fore. In some cases, some schools are having temporary arrangements, like book stores, and have mentioned specific timing for purchasing books for the classes.

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Last year, the Director School Education (DSE) had asked two local schools to file their replies within three days for recommending particular shops to parents for purchase of books and uniforms. These schools had mentioned the names of some particular outlets on their official websites. In order to avoid public embarrassment, the schools have now asked the parents to buy books from any book shop.

However, as far as books pertaining to certain publishers are concerned, the same are only available at certain book stores. “This practice has been in existence for years now. School dress of children and books cost thousands due to the monopoly of various people involved. Despite knowing the consequences, one of the schools has openly approached the parents by sending them a QR code for making advance payments and allotting specific time and date (as per classes) to pick the books’ sets,” said Honey, a parent.

Meanwhile, playing smart, those in business have started home delivery of books sets in order to avoid chaos at their respective stores and to avoid the authorities concerned. The websites of some famous books stores mention the name of the schools and those interested just have to click on the school name and select the class. After submitting the pre-decided amount for the entire set, the books will get delivered at the designated address.

The costs of books from pre-nursery to Class X ranges between Rs 1,000 and Rs 6,000 (with or without a language subject and without stationery), respectively, depending upon the school recommendations and publishers. Every year, hundreds of parents queue up at local bookstores to buy books for their wards. In order to avoid hassle, the book store owners prepare a complete set of books to deliver to customers after getting the payment.

Every year in March, as the new academic session starts, parents face such problems even before their wards enter the school gate for the first time. In 2018, the UT Education Department had directed schools to prescribe only NCERT books for all subjects, except language and mathematics for Classes I and II, and language, EVS and mathematics for Classes III to V.