Future perfect

Ranchi, Nov. 17: Over 45 lakh students of Jharkhand will get an opportunity to write their way to a better future, courtesy a government inititaive.

The Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC) has decided to start distributing free workbooks to students of Classes I to VIII of all state-run schools from the 2011 session.

So far, the JEPC, a state government association in charge of implementing the ambitious Sarva Siksha Abhiyan, has been providing only free textbooks to students of government primary and upper primary schools.

“The workbooks will help students master what they have learnt in textbooks in a better way. We are currently going through the workbook models of some private schools. A final decision will be taken soon,” JEPC director Vinay Kumar Choubey told The Telegraph.

JEPC has received around Rs 80 crore this fiscal for purchase of textbooks. The counci, which holds a copyright of NCERT, has already invited bids from prospective publishing houses for printing the textbooks. The last date of responding to the bid is November 26.

The authorities aim to complete the textbook printing and distribution process by March 20, 2011. The books will be supplied to as many as 40,000 primary and upper primary schools.

Officials said that out of Rs 80 crore, about Rs 45 crore was likely to be spent on textbooks and the remaining amount could be utilised to print the workbooks.

The state has around 12,000 upper primary schools and about 28,000 primary schools, where approximately 45 lakh students study.

The JEPC is also mulling to set up a call centre at its Ranchi-based headquarters to monitor activities of teachers and students besides keeping a tab on construction of additional classrooms, availability of books among other things. It will also have a list of mobile number of all teachers of various schools.

“We intend to outsource the job of the computerised call centre. The idea is to daily monitor the activities at different schools. Teachers and parents can also call up at the given number to air their grievances,” said Choubey.

Higher authorities, in turn, will monitor the functioning of the call centre at regular intervals.