The education department doesn’t seem ready for the academic session beginning in just about 10 days. Supply of textbooks, uniforms and a whole host of other pre-requisites are not going ahead as expected.
The government, which had undertaken a 15-day special programme, Vidya Sambaralu, by involving teachers, local leaders and officials for enrolment of students in government schools, however, seems to have failed in taking forward the initiative to its logical conclusion.
The fact that not even 30 per cent of textbooks were distributed in Rayalaseema and Nellore districts shows how prepared the authorities are. The distribution process is on but the sheer gap between demand and supply and the snail’s pace at which the textbooks are being supplied mean that many students in the two districts will have to attend classes without books.
In Kadapa, the district education department received only 4.5 lakh books as against the required 19 lakh! In Chittoor district, only 10 lakh books were supplied while the demand is for 24.13 lakh.
And, the education department officials have distributed only six lakh books till date.
When it comes to Anantapur, district officials sent proposals for 25 lakh textbooks for students in all the 3,800 primary, upper primary and high schools but got only 10 lakh books by the end of May. In Nellore district too, 7.75 lakh textbooks were distributed as against the requirement of 19.95 lakh.
Unlike in the past, the government gave the task of distribution of uniforms to school committees and other organisations like APCO in the districts to complete the process on time. However, they are not confident of meeting the deadline.
The government has sanctioned `400 for each uniform and this includes stitching charges. Every student will get two pairs of uniforms. An education department official admitted delay in distribution of textbooks and said he was not sure if they could meet the demand, especially, for Classes 4,5, 8 and 9 since the syllabus has been changed.
On supply of uniforms, he said, “I am completely unaware about uniforms and there is a lot of confusion. Though the school headmasters and mandal education officers are confident of distributing uniforms by the time schools reopen, I think it will take at least a month.”
Apart from textbooks and uniforms, the education department has also neglected providing basic amenities like toilets and drinking water in schools. In Nellore district, there are no toilets in about 1500 schools!