Schools have been reopened and the government-sponsored programmes like ‘Vidya Sambaralu’ and education fortnights are in full swing. Even while the awareness building and enrolment programmes are on, the resource material for education has not reached the students fully.
Shortage of textbooks is a phenomenon that revisits every year during the school re-opening, but this year it is even more irksome, as the syllabi have been changed for quite a few classes.
Teachers from various schools are complaining that textbooks have not arrived so far for a quite few subjects.
“We have not received even a fourth of the required textbooks in our school. On the one hand, government is celebrating education, and on the other, students are forced to come to school without textbooks. Many titles have not yet been printed,” complained T. Sai Reddy, the State president of the Andhra Pradesh Upadhyaya Sangham, who is also the headmaster of government school in Chivvemla village of Nalgonda district.
Syllabi for the classes IV, V, VIII and IX having been changed from this academic year onwards, classes cannot be conducted unless the new textbooks arrive for all the subjects.
However, most of the textbooks for the English Medium students have not yet been distributed.
“We have only received about 50 per cent of the required textbooks so far. The disbursement to mandals too has not exceeded 40 to 50 per cent. With syllabus changed for four classes, we cannot even use old textbooks for them as is the wont every year,” informed a teacher from Lingampalli village of Ibrahimpatnam mandal.
Even where about 60 to 70 per cent of the books have arrived, shortage of one or two titles is felt in every class, teachers informed.
However, the Director, State Government Textbook Press, B. Sudhakar claimed that about 70 per cent of the total textbooks required have been dispatched already. By the month end, the remaining too will be supplied, he assured.
The total requirement for the entire State stands at 5.25 crore, out of which about 3.6 crore textbooks have been dispatched, he said.
While government press undertakes the publishing of a limited number of books, most of the work is outsourced to private publishers.
