Karam Prakash

Tribune News Service

Patiala, May 24

Anhad, a Class VIII student of a government school in Patiala, had to buy her SST, Maths, and science books from the market due to shortage of books in the school. Similarly, Gurdish Kaur, a Class VI student, has to struggle for her studies without Maths and English textbooks.

The Punjab School Education Board prints and supplies books to the Education Department for further distribution among students free of cost. It has been learnt that thousands of students are compromising their studies due to non-availability of books. The worst-hit are newly enrolled students who took admission in the current session because the Education Department had placed orders as per student count of the previous session.

Amarjeet Singh, Patiala education officer, said there was some shortage due to the rise in new admissions. However, orders had already been placed to meet the demand.

The Democratic Teachers Front claimed that 80 per cent of English medium books from Classes I to VIII had not reached schools yet.

The association said it was ironic that they had been asked to teach students without books. Vikram Dev, state president, DTF, said, “The Education Minister seems more concerned about providing free uniforms to students. However, they need books to study through online classes.”

Prof Yograj, chairman, Punjab School Education Board, said, “This year there was a huge shift of students from private to government schools which led to supply shortage. Besides, textbooks of some subjects are to be updated. Textbooks will be provided to schools in the coming weeks.”