It has been nearly a month since classes began for II pre-university (PU) students. The study material for some of them has been photocopies of textbooks. With a delay in textbooks prescribed by the Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE) reaching the market, students have been forced to make do with alternatives for some subjects.
This is despite the department warning colleges against asking students to buy textbooks from private publishers.
The father of a II PU arts student in a private college in south Bengaluru said he had tried looking for textbooks for logic, psychology and Hindi for his daughter for weeks. “But they have not even reached shops on Avenue Road, which is the main market. If the government is offering courses, it is its obligation to ensure there are textbooks for them too,” he said.
A DPUE official, however, said the department had approved all the textbooks. The delay, he said, was owing to two reasons: “There were no bids for the first tender, because of which there was a delay of 15 days. In addition, we had to make some corrections in some textbooks. The delay is mainly for subjects that don’t have many takers.”
