Telangana textbooks: Schools say they still await some titles. What is the DSE's stand?

The start of this academic year for schools following the State Board was a little chaotic in Telangana. Textbooks were not provided to students up until more than a month after schools reopened on June 1. Students, parents and schools subscribing to State Board textbooks provided by the Telangana State Council of Educational Research and Training (TS CERT) raised concerns about the education of students being affected once again after two years of pandemic-induced disruptions. There were also reports of private schools subscribing to expensive textbooks, taking a toll on the parents. With the academic year well into August, where does the situation stand right now?

In a statement to EdexLive, Telangana's Director of School Education, A Sridevasena says, "We have provided 98% of the textbooks and these have reached the school already. The 2% of the books are stuck in transit because of the rains."

However, when we reached out to some schools across the state, a slightly different tale was narrated. Kashish Singh, a high school student of the Government Girls' High School, Mahboobia, in the capital city of Hyderabad, said that while most of the books have been provided at her school, there is a shortage of the first language Hindi and second language Telugu textbooks. "We have been told that we will have to arrange for these textbooks on our own," she adds. 
 
A parent at the Government Girls' High School in Masabtank informs that his daughter has not received any textbooks from the school yet. "She is making do with secondhand textbooks for now. I have asked the school for an update, but I haven't received any response yet," he says, on the condition of anonymity. He adds that uniforms have not been provided either. On the other hand, BV Swathi, a teacher at the school, says that textbooks have been provided to all students for this academic year. The government school in Nallagutta was informed that there was a delay in providing them with a few of the titles.

In the Karimnagar district, a teacher at the Zilla Parishad High School (ZPHS) in Keshavapatnam also says that they have received only 50% of the titles. "Some of the titles are still pending. We do not know the reason for the delay. For uniforms, we have received the cloth and have sent it for stitching. We expect to receive the uniforms next week," he adds. A teacher from the Nagunur ZPHS in Karimnagar says, "We received the textbooks around the second week of July and we expect the uniforms to be stitched soon too."

When informed about these instances, the Director of School Education A Sridevasena said the matter will be looked into for the specific schools.