Where are textbooks? 10 days on, Telangana draws blank

HYDERABAD: Ten days have passed since schools reopened in Telangana, but textbooks are still unavilable across all 8,000 odd private schools that subscribed to the state board books. It has become a major cause of concern for teachers and parents alike for the lost academics.
The situation is such that private schools are asking students of previous batches to bring in their old textbooks and hand them down to the current batch. The parents of children are also resorting to photocopying chapters to not miss classes.

"We have been told that books are unlikely to come until July 10. That will be around a month of academics. Till then we are revising the basics, but a textbook is crucial for all that," explained S Srinivas Reddy, honorary president of Telangana Recognised Schools Management Association (TRSMA).
It is here that the role of teachers comes into play. "How to keep the students occupied and prepare them for the actual course is now dependent on the teachers and management because some schools have good strength of teachers," added Y Shekhar Rao from TRSMA.

It is learnt that parents are now running to second-hand book stores, where these books have become a hot seller with shops near Koti Women's College seeing high demand for these. However, the books remain unavailable here as well.
"I don't understand why the state government had to change the syllabus and print new books this year considering the lockdown and the pandemic that disrupted the system. Now, children and parents are at the suffering end as they are left visiting book stores weekly," added G Azeem Uddin, general secretary of Hyderabad Deccan Parents Association.
"Every year the book shortage was a problem but this year it is a double whammy because not only are the books unavailable, but the students coming to class are coming in after missing two years of formal education," added Srinivas Reddy.