At a time when the delay in the distribution of textbooks at schools in East Godavari district even six weeks after the commencement of the academic year is giving the students and their parents the jitters, the ‘book bank’ programme being implemented voluntarily by some teachers has come as a saving grace.
Submit books to get TC
With the lack of textbooks putting a spoke in covering the syllabus in time, many schools in the district have made it mandatory for the SSC pass-outs to deposit their old textbooks before they are issued transfer certificates.
The new informal rule for the students of lower classes now is they will get the new books only after the submission of their old textbooks to teh designated teacher.
A few schools in the district have started the programme and the others toed the line in no time.
Now, almost every government schools in the district have this new provision in place and one teacher of each school has been designated the collect the old textbooks from the students who are leaving for higher classes.
“Now, we are able to run the lessons without waiting for the new textbooks to be delivered. Thanks to the book bank scheme. We are also guiding students on taking good care of their textbooks to make those useful to the students of the next batches,” says Pilli Govindarajulu, a teacher of upper primary school at Chinna Jaggampeta.
Mammoth task
At least 40% of the 7.5 lakh students in the district, however, are awaiting at least one textbook from the government as the release of books in two instalments so far has proved insufficient. East Godavari district has 5,986 schools including 4,298 government-run ones and the textbook distribution is quite a mammoth task.
“There is shortage of textbooks for Class VI and VII this year, but it’s not deterring us from taking the classes as per schedule,” says Kesari Srinivasa Rao, a teacher of MSN Charities High School at Jagannaikpur.
However, the use of told textbook has another problem surfaced. Small changes made to a few lessons of Telugu textbook in the SSC is creating confusion among students as many of them are using on the old textbooks.
Help your friend
“We are asking the students who have got new books to help their classmates who do not have those yet. The new books are expected in a week or two,” says a Telugu pandit from Ramachandrapuram mandal requesting anonymity.
