TIRUCHY: Even as the Tamil Nadu government promotes educational schemes focusing schoolchildren, students in government and aided schools across the State are yet to be supplied with their textbooks and notebooks.
This despite nearly a month having passed since schools resumed for classes and the students' scheduled quarterly examination days away.
Mentioning it to now be a struggle for students to take notes, a teacher at a government primary school in Paganur said children can't afford to buy notebooks and uniforms owing to many of them coming from a modest background. The students manage the non-availability of books by approaching their seniors, the teacher added.
A teacher from Beema Nagar corporation school, too, pointed to notebooks not having reached them while an aided school at Ponmalaipatti mentioned not having received all the books.
S Umamaheshwari, an activist, also said schools manage the delay in supply of textbooks by advising the students to approach their immediate seniors. "The parents of those students in government schools are mostly daily-wage labourers who struggle to lead their daily life. They are also the ones who won't question the authorities," she added.
Enquiring rhetorically whether such delay in supply of books would happen in a private school, Umamaheshwari said, "When a student staying in a government hostel is asked to buy a notebook or a textbook, how can he afford it when he doesn’t have a single rupee in hand? Also, what would happen to his education?"
She also warned of teachers succumbing to pressure and fudging the student assessment reports that are handed over to education officials. Ultimately, it would be the students who would be affected, she added.
While pointing to how the supply of books was promised by the beginning of July, a student from the government higher secondary school in Lalgudi claimed not having received them till date.
When enquired, the Chief Educational Officer (CEO) in the district, R Balamurali, told The New Indian Express, "We are yet to receive the notebooks from Chennai. The textbooks, meanwhile, are already being supplied to schools, and we expect them soon."