ROURKELA: Four months into the new academic session, thousands of students of 33 Hindi and eight Urdu medium schools are yet to get the textbooks provided by the Government. The schools are run under the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA).
Rourkela city has a sizeable number of Hindi speaking population while adjacent Bisra block has a large number of Muslims.
The Government-run Rashtriya Vidyalaya School here is the most sought after Hindi medium institution with around 600 students from Class I to Class V and 360 students from Class VI and VII under SSA. Similarly, Government-run Kalyani Devi School has over 900 students. In-charge headmaster of RV School Md Inam Khan said students find it difficult to study without books. They attend classes with help of old textbooks, but fail to comprehend. The situation is the same in DAV Hindi Medium High School.
Sources in the SSA said there are 33 Government or Government-aided Hindi-medium schools in Rourkela and its periphery catering to around 10,000 students. Similarly, eight Government or Government-aided minority institutions in Urdu medium have collective students’ strength of 3,500 to 4,000. A majority of these students hail from slums and belong to economically backward sections. A local, Sheikh Abdul Rahim whose son studies in Rourkela Urdu Primary School, said due to lack of textbooks the students face difficulty in and their education is hampered. Sundargarh unit secretary of All Utkal Primary Teachers’ Association, Sanjay Samal, said all problems should be addressed to ensure timely supply of textbooks in larger interest of the poor students.
Sundargarh-based District Project Coordinator (DPC) to SSA, Amulya Kumar Pradhan, attributed the delay to technical reasons and said order for supply of required textbooks has been placed.
Sundargarh Collector Bhupendra Singh Poonia also asserted that the problem would be sorted out in 15 to 20 days.
Major neglect
33 aided Hindi-medium schools in Rourkela and its periphery cater to around 10,000 students
Eight minority institutions in Urdu medium have students’ strength of around 4,000
Majority of students live in slums and come from economically weaker sections
SSA Officials have attributed the delay to technical reasons and said order for supply of required textbooks has been placed