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| A bookstore in Bhubaneswar. Telegraph pictures |
Bhubaneswar, April 25: Several students of CBSE schools in the city have been left in the lurch as their prescribed books are not available at local bookstores.
Many of these schools follow books of the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Ever since the new academic session began in the first week of April, the acute shortage of the books has hit the students hard.
“Some of my classmates and I have been looking for the Mahabharat book (Hindi) for almost two weeks now. The booksellers are not sure when it would be available. It is becoming very difficult to catch up with the new lessons in class,” rued Adityesh Mishra, a Class VII student of Mothers' Public School. “I have checked with all big and small bookstores in the city but none of them seem to have the science books. Some of my classmates have borrowed books from senior students. Many other students in other classes have not got the complete set,” said Disha, a Class VII student of St. Xavier's High School.
Bookstore owners said there is a shortage of the following books: English for Class I, science for Class VI and VII, and history, civics and geography for Class X.
On the other hand, mathematics book for Class IV and VIII have not at all been supplied this year by NCERT.
“The CBSE schools have to follow the NCERT books from Class VI onwards and, therefore, students are going through a harrowing time. Last year, our students had to suffer a lot due to the delayed supply of books. So this time our school decided to purchase the books directly. Despite that, we could not get the history and geography books for Class IX students and English for Class X,” said N.K. Panigrahi, vice-principal of Sai International School.
According to the distributors of NCERT textbooks, the scarcity in the state has been persisting for more than two decades. “Although we start placing the order for books in December, not even half the required amount is supplied by April. The government of India has all resources at hand but ridiculously, it has not been able to meet the requirements since 22 years,” said Abhimanyu Bal, proprietor of Gyan Bharati wholesale distributor of NCERT, which supplies the books to nearly 80 book dealers across the state.
“This year has been the worst so far. We could supply about 40 to 50 per cent of the required books, on a priority basis, to the schools that had placed their orders last year. We have written countless letters and called them up many times for complaints or suggestions but they do not respond at all,” added Bal.
Another distributor, who spoke on condition of anonymity, mentioned earlier NCERT used to publish workbooks for every subject from Classes I to VIII. However, this has been stopped since seven years now.
“Now, private publishers are flooding the markets with similar workbooks and minting money by selling them at a higher price,” said the distributor. However, a school teacher explained the reason for the shortage: “NCERT books are published in Delhi where school sessions mostly begin from July. So majority of the books are published in May and June to meet the requirement. They supply a part of the publication to the states which begin classes in April, hence, the delay.”