post news network
Bhubaneswar, July 22: The state government has directed officials of school and mass education (SME) and higher education departments to make textbooks available to students within a week.
According to an official of SME department, Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik issued directions to the heads of concerned departments during a review meeting Thursday evening.
Although Plus II courses have been modelled upon CBSE pattern and classes commenced across the state, textbooks in some subjects are not available in the market.
Expressing concern over the issue, the Chief Minister directed the authorities to expedite the book distribution process so that the students get their textbooks by next week, said the sources.
Speaking on the delay in providing textbooks higher education minister Pradip Panigrahi said books could not be distributed on time due to delay in submission of report by the academic committee.
Printing process was also delayed for which all books could not be printed by July 15.
During the meeting it was revealed that so far the government has provided 2.87 crore books to 54.82 lakh students of different classes in the state.
Besides, the government has taken steps to provide books in 21 indigenous languages to 2500 schools in the tribal areas of 17 districts.
The Governent has also printed nearly 1 lakh Oriya textbooks which will be distributed among Oriya children studying in Jharkhand, Chhatishgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat, Maharastra and West Bengal.
School and mass education minister Debi Prasad Mishra said the book distribution process has been expedited as per the directions of the Chief Minister.
