Parents worried on non-availability of textbooks
Box: Covid hit dept work
“Books were, earlier, provided free of cost to all students up to Class VIII under the Rights to Education Act, but this time, the Department of School Education has decided to give the students monetary aid for buying books from market as it could not get the books published due to the Covid situation.” – An official
Ravinder Saini
Tribune News Service
Jhajjar, September 1
The non-availability of textbooks up to Class VIII in government schools has become a major cause of concern for parents in the district.
The issue came to the fore when the district education officials prepared a report after interacting online and offline with over 53,000 parents during “mega parent-teachers meet (PTM)” held in the district yesterday. The move aimed to find out the major concerns of the parents in a situation when schools are not being run with full strength, said sources.
An official said the books were, earlier, provided free of cost to all students up to Class VIII under the Rights to Education Act, but this time, the Department of School Education has decided to give the students monetary aid for buying the books from market as it could not get the books published due to the Covid situation.
“The aid has not been released even four months after the commencement of the new academic session. However, the department, in May, had directed its officials at the district level to conduct a special book exchange programme for providing old books to the students so that they could continue their study,” said the sources.
An official said old books had been provided to many students, but still, a considerable number of children were yet to get the books as these were also not available in the market, making parents complain of the non-availability of books during the PTM.
Sources maintained that the report also disclosed that the non-availability of smart phones and slow speed of the Internet connection, especially in rural areas, were adversely affecting online classes, hence the parents were in favour of opening of primary schools for all classes. Though the government schools started conducting offline classes for the students of Classes IV and V standards from today, children of classes I to III are still dependent upon smartphones to study online.
“Since New Education Policy has come into force, the process of framing the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is underway. New books will be designed and published on the basis of the NCF, but till then, the students will get aid to buy the books from the market,” Dr Sudershan Punia, nodal officer, Saksham Programme.
