Govt schools: Students to get textbooks months after start of new session
PRAYAGRAJ : The new academic session of Uttar Pradesh Basic Education Board schools began on April 1 but the students are yet to get free textbooks. The books will become available only by August, say officials in the know about it.
Tenders have been sought from publishers by May 4 for publishing and distributing the textbooks to around 1.90 crore students of classes 1 to 8 enrolled in more than 1.50 lakh primary and upper primary schools of the state, they add.
As per the short-term tender document dated April 19, 2022, floated by the state government, a copy of which is with HT, e-bid submissions can take place till 12 noon on May 4 following which the opening of the technical e-bids would take place on the same day at 1 pm at the directorate of basic education located at Nishatganj in Lucknow.
A senior basic education department official said after the completion of the tender process, all the books will be sent to the districts in around three months but the workbooks may reach the districts in four months’ time.
Even if the tender gets finalised on May 4, the books are expected to be received only by the first week of August and the workbooks by the first week of September. As many as 69, 39 and 32 books and workbooks are to be published for Hindi, English and Urdu medium students respectively.
Meanwhile, director (basic education) Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh has already asked basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) to collect old textbooks from students promoted to next classes and distribute the same to students who have joined their classes this session as a make do arrangement till new books become available.
The situation of around 1.25 crore students of classes 9 to 12 enrolled in more than 28,000 schools from across the state affiliated to UP Board is no different and they too will be able to get new books almost with a three-month delay for academic session 2022-23 that started on April 1.
UP Board has invited tenders for the publication of books by May 11. The work order will be issued after the tender opens on May 12. Publishers will have to make the books available in market by June 25. Here too a total of 67 books of different subjects are to be published.
Critics, including teachers, blame the officers of Basic Education
Board and UP Board for the delay in getting the book publication process going for the new session.
“The officials should have started the tender process in December 2021 itself but the process was started only in April 2022 after the state assembly and MLC polls got over and due to which children are being forced to study without books for three to four months,” said teacher MLC (Allahabad-Jhansi division) Suresh Kumar Tripathi.