This is not the first time that such a delay has left thousands of government school students in the lurch. According to sources, English and Hindi textbooks for class IX, Hindi textbooks for class VI and mathematics textbooks for class II have not reached various schools.
The attendance in government schools have also dipped with lack of textbooks. “Although distribution of textbooks is better this year, there are few schools which are yet to receive textbooks. The government’s decision to adopt CBSE schedule was a total failure since many students failed to attend classes in March,” said Sanjeev Rao, general secretary of Telangana United Teachers Federation.
Until last year, the uniform contract was given to local agencies that used poor quality cloth which lasted only for a few months. But this year, the state government has directly supplied superior quality cloth to school head masters. Teachers claim that while few schools have distributed the cloth to students, others charged additional amount for stitching. “Tailors in several mandals are not willing to stitch the uniform for as low as 50. Since the amount is low, it will take more than a month for stitching. If the government pays 80 per pair, then tailors might come forward and speed up the process,” said Narayana Nagati, state president of Telangana Private Education Reforms Movement.
It may be noted that out of 40 lakh students, nearly 20 lakh are enrolled in government schools. Even as the academic session has commenced, teachers will be busy till June 17 with the Badi Bata programme to enrol more students.
Tamil, Kannada and Marathi medium schools are yet to receive their textbooks and uniforms, officials admitted.
