Shortage of textbooks in schools in India…

Well, that’s hardly news anymore. It is a regular phenomenon which happens every year as school reopens.

But this year, this academic session, the ‘news’ pinches me a little harder than usual. Because the policy makers of our country are into fancy stuff. They proclaim that they are going to give each child a laptop for free. A laptop which is going to cost only $10. Hang on, it’s actually $100. It seems our dear minister missed a ‘0’. But didn’t our minister think that it was “pedagogically suspect”? What happened to that ‘good’ sense? While I’m all for improving the quality of education through the use of technology I’m not much of a supporter of One Laptop Per Child schemes be it India’s or Nicholas Negroponte’s. Especially when children go without even basics like textbooks. We all want an educated India but I’m very sure this is not going to be achieved by throwing laptops in the laps of children!

Here’s a list of “textbooks shortage stories”:

27^th May 2008-- This year too, CBSE students wait for textbooks

K Chandrika (name changed), a student of class 10 in a Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus school will consider herself lucky if she can procure all her textbooks by September-October.

18^th June 2008-- Stores run out of textbooks

A survey of bookshops selling school books in many parts of the city revealed that textbooks for many classes are not available. Sources said this year, syllabi of class 3rd and 7th standards have changed and hence books of these classes are yet to be made available in the bookstores.

22^nd June 2008-- Urdu schools go without textbooks, teachers

Like all school-going children, 13-year-old Atyaab Hussain of Quami School carries a bag to school. However, instead of books, this sixth grader carries a bottle of water in it.

Urdu schools in Delhi are battling a resource crunch. At the heart of the crisis is a pressing shortage of teachers and textbooks.

24^th June, 2008--Shortage of textbooks irks parents in Rawalpindi

Parents of children studying in different schools here Monday expressed concern over the shortage of textbooks of various classes published by Punjab Textbook Board. A parent in Rawalpindi said that he went to buy books of Class 8th for his daughter and Science book of Class 6th for his son but was disappointed on their non-availability.

28^th July 2008--Shortage of textbooks haunts kids

The problems dogging the field of education seem far from over. After the recent class XIth admission fiasco, now, primary and secondary students are confronted with the problem of shortage of text books. The text books approved by Maharashtra government, as prescribed by the state board for most of the classes are not easily available.

02 August 2008-- Forty three textbooks unavailable in market, students face hardships

Contrary to the claims of Chairman Sindh Text Book Board, some forty three books for both English and Urdu medium are short in the market, as the academic session started Friday after two-month summer vacation in the province.

4^th August 2008-- Kannada medium students suffer without textbooks

Plus-One and Plus-Two students of Government Higher Secondary School in Panakahalli in Thalavady Union face a peculiar problem: they study without text books.