Jamshedpur, Oct. 25: The CBSE schools in the state, both private and government, can heave a sigh of relief.

In an attempt to overcome scarcity of textbooks, the state human resource development department has decided to seek permission from NCERT to publish their textbooks.

State human resource development minister Pashupati Nath Singh would meet top NCERT officials in New Delhi on October 28 to thrash out a deal. Singh told The Telegraph that NCERT has agreed to give them permission to publish their textbooks in the state. ?The decision would surely benefit CBSE students. We are optimistic that after getting the permission, we would be able to solve the textbook crisis,? he said.

Most of the schools in the state are facing the textbook crisis since the introduction of CBSE curriculum in 2002.

According to Singh, the last consignment of NCERT textbooks arrived in the state in June. ?We are still facing a crisis of getting NCERT books from New Delhi from Class V to Class X. Keeping this in mind, we have decided to seek NCERT?s permission to publish their books,? said Singh.

?After getting the permission from NCERT, we can include more pages in subjects like History or Geography, which focus more on the tribal culture of Jharkhand,? he added. However, a decision would have to be taken on whether the government would publish the books or whether it would be handed over to private publishers.

Vice-president of New Delhi-based Laxmi Publications, which prints the NCERT books, Gyan Brahma Pathak said it is a good decision taken by the state government.

?Jharkhand is still facing a crisis of NCERT textbooks as the demand has increased due to implementation of CBSE curriculum in schools and intermediate colleges,? he said.

The Jharkhand Academic Council (JAC), which conducts the secondary and higher secondary examinations, has introduced CBSE pattern in high schools in 2002, while the CBSE pattern has been introduced in the intermediate schools and colleges from the current academic session.