State syllabus schools yet to get full quota of textbooks

As the new academic year enters its second week, state syllabus schools have still not received all the revised textbooks.

The textbooks for Classes I to VIII had been revised by a committee headed by Bargur Ramachandrappa. There were 511 titles to be printed but a delay in issuing work orders and shortage of paper to print the six crore books had resulted in several delays.

M A Khan, secretary of the Bangalore South District High School Headmasters’ Association, said that only about 25% of all books from Class I to X had reached his school.

“Most of the textbooks for the core subjects such as science, mathematics and social science have arrived. But we haven’t received a majority of the language textbooks yet. For now, we are engaging the students by teaching them general concepts such as letter-writing based on the old textbook,” he said. Khan added that since teachers did not get the books before the academic year, they are taking time to familiarise themselves with the content and plan for lessons.

The principal of a government school in South Bengaluru said that they had received about 70% of the books. “We have got most of the part I books of the core subjects. It would have helped if we could get part II textbooks also now but a delay of a few weeks will not affect us too much. Some language textbooks are yet to be supplied. The department officials say we will get all the books by the end of the week,” he said.

In Bengaluru, according to information from block-level officers, between 50% and 60% of distribution is completed. “In my taluk, we require 218 titles. So far, 64% of the books have already been supplied and new loads are getting delivered everyday. We will complete the distribution of books by June 10,” one official in the city said.

Commissioner of Public Instruction Sowjanya said that as of Saturday last week, 90% of the printing had been completed and 80% of the books had been bound and dispatched. She said all the books would be dispatched by this weekend.

DH News Service

Tougher NCERT syllabus this year
From this academic year, students of Class IX will use NCERT textbooks for mathematics and science subjects.

However, teachers say they have not received any training on the new material. “The NCERT syllabus is more difficult. Teachers require training in some of the concepts. We will have training in the coming months but it would have been better if they had conducted it during the vacation,” the headmaster of a government school in the city, said. Teachers will receive training in the new portions under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), in batches.

From this year, I PU students of the commerce stream will also use NCERT textbooks. However, a 15-day training for lecturers was held in May to ensure that they were ready before the academic year begins.