3 months on, Punjab students yet to get textbooks

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Government schools reopened after a month on Monday but students have still not been provided with the prescribed textbooks , three months after the new academic session started.

A teacher, requesting anonymity, said, “Some students don’t have their mathematics textbooks, others don’t have their Punjabi books. Students are sharing textbooks till everyone can get their own copy.”

“In the absence of textbooks, students are neither able to complete their homework or revise their lessons,” the teacher added.

At Government Girl’s High School, Mall Road, 227 students are registered in Classes 7 and 8. Of them, 90 Class-7 students and 80 Class-8 students do not have mathematics and Punjabi textbooks, respectively.

An education department official, on condition of anonymity, said government schools across the state are short of over 6 lakh textbooks. “There is a major shortage of seven titles. The delivery of textbooks has been delayed as the printers have been unable to meet the massive order on time.”

The Punjab School Education Board was to provide 1.70 crore students with textbooks in this academic session.

“There is a statewide shortage of Class-8 mathematics textbooks, Class-9 Hindi, mathematics, Bangi books and a Punjabi textbook Ik Hor Nava Saal, and Class-10 English and mathematics books,” said the official.

“The books are delayed every year and as such we try to maintain book banks where previous years’ books can be deposited. We tell the students not to soil the books so that they can be used next year at the beginning of the academic session,” a senior education department official said.

Deputy district education officer Bhupinder Kaur said the state authorities are aware of the issue and students will get their textbooks soon.