New session starts in government schools, but students wait for books, results

Gurgaon: Despite the new academic session starting on Tuesday for govt primary schools, several in Noida and Ghaziabad have not received any books, especially for classes 1-3.
Since new books were introduced last year under a changed syllabus, teachers said old stocks could not be distributed this year. Most schools plan to conduct oral lessons for now.
Many schools have even started the new academic session without declaring the results of the previous session. "Schools got a govt order that results must be distributed by this week," said Amit Kumar, president of Prathmik Shikshak Sangh, Ghaziabad. "We could distribute new books for only classes 5-8. On the first day of school, students are excited to get new books. It is demotivating for junior students to wait for months to get them. Last year, the books came in July when students should have received them by April," said Praveen Sharma, principal of Tugalpur Primary School.
Due to the lack of study materials, most schools have opted for oral classes, but teachers feel that is not enough.
"The students already lag behind their academic curriculum. No matter how much teachers try to update them on the syllabus, writing on the board and dictating to them will not help till they have their books. They don't remember anything," said a primary school teacher.
Meanwhile, some Ghaziabad schools started the new session with only temporary teachers amid a teacher crisis.
After the principals of primary schools at Sihani Gate and Shaheed Nagar 2 retired on March 31, they are now left with one temporary teacher each.
Currently, 93 schools need at least 350 more teachers to support the academic curriculum. The city govt schools have 17,000 students, but only 238 teachers — a ratio of just one teacher per 71 students. Moreover, at the upper primary level, only four schools out of 37 have a principal.