Teachers of government schools in the twin cities have started collecting old textbooks from students being promoted to new classes in a bid to utilise the books in case of a delay in provision of new free textbooks.
The sources said on Thursday that the students from nursery to 8th class would be promoted to their next classes on March 31 and the new academic year would start from April 1. The government has declared that the students of all public sector schools would get free books like the previous year.
When contacted, heads of various schools said that during the last few years they had repeatedly faced shortage of textbooks at the start of the academic year. However, a few schools saved themselves from the nuisance by collecting old books from their students to use them in new classes.
“Availability of books at start of classes saves precious time of the students and protect teachers from mental anxiety,” said a principal of higher secondary school. He said that teachers would not be able to teach their students if there were neither old books nor enough new textbooks available in the market.
A primary school teacher said that last year some books of the primary classes were not provided till the annual examination. He said that they had to arrange photocopies of books and use them in their classes for the entire academic year.
“Our teachers have told us that in order to get new books we should submit old books to the school administration,” said a student, Farhad Ali, awaiting promotion to 7th class.
Zahid Ali, a resident of Bharakahu and a father of two, said that the federal and provincial governments should ensure the provision of textbooks in time. “My sons faced books’ shortage in the outgoing educational year,” he said.
When contacted, a staff member in the book distribution centre, seeking anonymity, said that they had observed in the past few years that heads of numerous government schools had been sending demand for textbooks much higher than their needs which caused shortage of books in other schools. Meanwhile, sources said that the officials concerned had warned the headmasters to send correct data of students in their institutions otherwise they could face action this time.
