4 months on, border students await textbooks
TARNTARAN:Even as chief minister Captain Amarinder Singh, no less, expressed his disappointment at the 57% result in Class-10 at the Punjab School Education Board (PSEB), little seemed to have improved on the ground in the state’s education system.
Four months into the new academic session, not a single student of around 1 lakh strength enrolled in government schools in border districts has received the full set of text books. There are 48,865 students of primary schools, 33,710 in Classes 6-8th and 12,908 in Classes 9-10 that are to be given green free set of text books.
Of four subjects in Class 1 at primary schools, students have the text book of only one subject. Class-3 students have not received the text book of even a single subject. Students of Class 4 have received books of only two subjects. The story repeats itself across all classes.
Deputy commissioner Pardeep Kumar Sabarwal said that had requested the director general of school education to send the remaining books in the border schools.
In June, the PSEB had announced disciplinary action against principals and teachers of government schools with less than 20 per cent pass rates in board examinations, but the department has utterly failed to pull rein on its own staff because of lacking textbooks in all government schools.
“I got 90% marks in Class 7 and want to score 100% in Class 8. However, I have received books of only 5 subjects out of total 10 subjects,” said a student of border village, Manpreet Kaur.
Pooran Singh, father of a Class 5 student, said, “We can compromise with anything but compromising with the future of our children will not be tolerated. The remaining books must be released immediately.”
“We teach students in border areas, but the non-availability of textbooks does make our job very hard. The education department needs to streamline its working,” a primary school teacher said on condition of anonymity.
Another teacher claimed, “The department had not paid the pending amount to the printing press and the press, this time, refused to print textbooks. The government needs to sort this out soon.”