Two years after the Department of Pre-University Education (DPUE) decided to introduce common textbooks across PU colleges, students continue to buy textbooks from private printers.
The DPUE was forced to issue a warning on May 11, just before the admissions officially began, asking students and parents to not buy textbooks other than those readied by the PU board.
Importantly, the board also referred to some college managements forcing students who are taking admissions in those colleges to buy books prescribed by them. This is in violation of the board’s rules.
In 2012–13, the PU board adopted the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks as it was the only higher secondary board in the country to not have textbooks of its own. The decision was taken after the DPUE first introduced the National Core Curriculum for science courses that year and realised it was necessary to have a clearly defined syllabus, forcing students to buy multiple textbooks.
