KOCHI: When the Plus-II text books finally arrived in schools after a delay of about two months, there were hardly any takers for them in many schools.
With less than two weeks left for the Onam exams, most of the students bought books from outside, not wanting to waste time by waiting. As a result, bundles of books lie unsold in some of the schools.
In most of the schools, the books arrived only one or two weeks ago, with the delay consuming about 60 days of the total 200 working days of the academic year.
“Since books for subjects under the NCERT syllabus are available outside, students bought them from private stores. Some of them borrowed books from their seniors. Now, most of the books are lying unsold in the school office,” said Sujatha, principal-in-charge of the SRV School, Ernakulam.
The management of some of the schools have found a way to make use of the books by contacting those who need them. “The situation is different at each school. Around 300 books were dumped in my office, which will be of no use next year because the syllabus will change.
“I contacted a few nearby schools, which are in need of the books, and gave the books to them. Because the responsibility of the books lies with the principal, and not with the school, I had to put the books to use,” said M M Shafi, principal of the Government Higher Secondary School, Attingal. The books for Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics, Biology, Zoology and Economics, are of NCERT syllabus, whereas language text books are of SCERT syllabus.
“Around 40 books of NCERT syllabus require copyright. By the time the government received the copyright and published the books, students had bought them from private publishers.
The situation is the same even in lower classes. We hope to bridge the gap when the new Plus-I batches begin,” said Harigovind, president of the Kerala Pradesh School Teachers Union.