Students attend a class at an Oriya medium school without textbooks. Telegraph picture

Bhubaneswar Oct. 12: There has been almost no distribution of text books to Oriya medium schools outside the state. Not a single textbook has reached any of the Oriya medium school in Jharkhand, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

“Barring Gujarat, we haven’t been able to supply it anywhere,” said an official at the state textbook press here.

While schools in Jharkhand have a requirement of 12,121 books, the requirement for Andhra Pradesh is 15,050 books. West Bengal schools have a requirement of 15,900 books. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh have a requirement of 400 and 300 books respectively. Of the total requirement of 8,900, only 4,250 books have been supplied to Gujarat schools.

The case is no better in the primary schools of the state where books are yet to reach. At least 70 lakh books are yet to reach different schools in the state. While the total requirement of books stands at 27,497,227 as on date only 20,62,8704 books have been supplied to different schools.

The worst hit among the districts has been Malkangiri, where only 46 per cent of the total requirement has reached. Schools in Puri and Gajapati are also among the worst sufferers. Officials attributed the delay in Malkangiri to Naxal-related problems. Interestingly, some schools in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack are yet to receive the books. While Cuttack schools require 3,70,000 more books, Bhubaneswar is also running short of 2,98,000 books.

Deogarh schools have been the luckiest receiving the maximum of 89.74 per cent of the total requirement. The school and mass education department that could not keep its promise of providing the books by September has, however, not ceased to make more announcements.

School and mass education department secretary Aparajita Sarangi said that work has already begun to ensure that books reach the school for students who will be joining next year.

“Books will reach all schools by March 2011 for the academic session 2011-12,” said Sarangi.

The department has already contacted 89 printing press and 216 binders for the purpose. While the state government will print 30 lakh text books, the remaining 2.31 crore text books will be printed in private press.

“We have engaged 46 more printers for next year’s job,” said Sarangi.

adding that 8,135 metric tonne paper has already been procured.

“There are also plans to create book banks in schools that can be used during crisis period. Students who pass out can voluntarily donate their used books with the headmaster of the school. These books will be collected and stored to create a book bank,” she said.