Jamshedpur, May 16: In an attempt to address the problems of the students of Oriya and Bengali medium schools, the state education department has placed orders for a large number of books in these two languages.

The first consignment of the books is expected to arrive by the end of June.

Sources in the state secretariat informed that the education department, concerned over the dearth of books in these two languages in the middle and high schools, has placed orders for about 20,000 Bengali and 10,000 Oriya books with the governments of West Bengal and Orissa respectively.

Confirming the move, state education minister Pashupati Nath Singh said, “Both the state governments have agreed to make the books available by the end of June,” he said.

According to Singh, the books would be made available to Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe students (Class I to Class VIII) free of cost. However, he added that the general category students would have to pay for them.

Singh admitted that minority educational institutions faced a crisis of books after the government decided to implement the NCERT curriculum.

The NCERT books are not available in Bengali and Oriya, which has caused a lot of inconvenience to students of these schools.

“We have asked the governments of West Bengal and Orissa to translate the NCERT books before printing. An advance payment of about Rs 3 crore has been made to the two governments for printing the books,” he said.

Senior education officials of Jharkhand and Orissa had met in the steel city last August to discuss the nitty-gritty of translating the books.

The education minister of Orissa, who was present on the occasion, had agreed to translate the NCERT books in the Oriya language.

According to sources, almost all the Oriya and Bengali medium schools in the state are face the book crisis, which has adversely affected the performance of students.

Though the overall matriculation results improved by 22 per cent this year, education department sources said the same for the Bengali and Oriya medium schools did not improve significantly.

District education officials said the state department, concerned over the results of these schools, has asked for a detailed list of books they required. Sources added that after the arrival of the first consignment, the education department would place orders for 20,000 books each with the respective governments of West Bengal and Orissa.