Vadodara: Book fair to lessen burden on students

VADODARA: What happens to the textbooks once your child clears the standard he or she is enrolled in? Most of them are either dumped or sold to the local ‘pastiwala’ even as somebody in your neighbourhood ends up spending a handsome amount to purchase new ones for his or her child.
The Vadodara Parents Association (VPA) is acting as a bridge between such parents by organizing textbook fairs where parents can deposit used textbooks and get them exchanged for the ones of next standard as per the requirement of their wards.
“We started this initiative on June 13 to lessen the burden on parents as well as help save the environment by organizing the textbook fair. We got a tremendous response as around 368 parents participated in the first fair. Following requests from many parents, we repeated the book fair this Sunday,” said VPA spokesperson advocate Kishore Pillai, adding that around 243 parents benefitted from the second book fair.
Parents donated old books which their wards had used in previous years and exchanged them with books of the next standard.