Nabarangpur: Even as the academic year is about to end in a couple of months, the students in schools of Nabarangpur district are preparing for their examinations without textbooks, said a report.
According to sources, this precarious situation has exposed the peculiarity in elementary education policy adopted by the state government. Textbooks were supplied to a few schools in the district ahead of mid-term exams and pre-tests.
Although the academic session started in April this year, textbooks were provided to Class IX students in September and 71,246 books were supplied to schools in Nabarangpur.
Similarly, 60,000 textbooks were provided to Class X students. In the second phase, the education department supplied 20,884 textbooks to Class IX students and 31,812 to Class X students in December, when 50 per cent of courses should have been completed.
Despite government guidelines to deliver textbooks at schools or block levels, those were allegedly being sent to the district education office (DEO). Consequently, 185 schools under ten blocks in the district bear the transportation costs for bringing books to the schools.
As the Class X Board Examination will begin in February 2020 the students are compelled to manage with old books which they have collected from pass-outs.
Notably, under the Right to Education (RTE) Act 2009, there is provision for waiver of fees, distribution of free textbooks, reading and writing materials, uniforms and other support materials.
PNN
