Session starts, but students still without their textbooks

Prayagraj: Even after a month since the new academic session started in schools of UP Basic Education Board, the students are yet to be provided with free textbooks. According to sources, the books will be available by August.
Tenders have been sought from publishers by May 4 for publishing and distributing textbooks to around 1.90 crore students of Classes 1 to 8 enrolled in over 1.50 lakh Basic Education Board’s primary and upper primary schools of the state.
As per April 19, 2022 dated short term tender document, e-bid submissions can take place till 12 noon on May 4, following which the opening of technical e-bids would take place on the same day at the directorate of basic education in Lucknow.
A senior basic education department official said that after the completion of the tender process, all the books will be sent to the districts in around three months but the workbooks may take extra time and reach the districts in four months time.
Sources inform that even if the tender gets finalized on May 4, then too the books are expected to be received only by the first week of August and the workbooks by the first week of September. As many as 69 workbooks for Hindi medium students, 39 for English and 32 books for Urdu medium students are to be published.Meanwhile, realising the challenge, Director (Basic Education) Sarvendra Vikram Bahadur Singh has already asked basic shiksha adhikaris (BSAs) to collect old textbooks from students promoted to next classes and distribute the same to students who have joined their classes this session as a make do arrangement till new books become available.
The situation of around 1.25 crore students of classes 9 to 12 enrolled in more than 28,000 schools from across the state affiliated to UP Board are also no different and they too will be able to get new books almost with a three-month delay for academic session 2022-23 that started on April 1. UP Board has invited tenders for the publication of books by May 11. The work order will be issued after the tender opens on May 12. Publishers will have to make the books available in the market by June 25. Here too a total of 67 books of different subjects are to be published.
Critics, including teachers point blame the officers of Basic Education Board and UP Board for the delay in getting the books’ publication process going for the new session. “With the commencement of the new session in April, the officials should have started the tender process in December 2021 itself but the process was started only in April after the state assembly and MLC polls were over and due to which children are being forced to study without books for three to four months of the new session,” said Teacher MLC (Allahabad-Jhansi Division) Suresh Kumar Tripathi.