Hyderabad: The new academic year begins a fortnight hence on March 21 for state government schools, but the text books are still in the works. The process of issuing tenders for printing the textbooks has run into legal hassles.
Along with a slew of reforms, the education department had advanced the beginning of the academic year to March, from mid-June earlier. This brought the academic calender in line with CBSE schools.
Telangana Recognised School Managements Association president S. Srinivas Reddy said starting classes without textbooks would not serve the purpose.
"How can a student follow a teacher without having a textbook?. In view of the new schedule, the government should have tackled the situation better," he said.
Mr Srinivas Reddy said that the state has nearly 14,500 private schools with 32 lakh students from Classes 1 to 10 Missionary Schools Association president Bro. Show Reddy wanted the government to address the issue on priority basis.
The government received 15 applications for printing textbooks for private schools. Of these, 10 to met the norms. Officials gave tenders to five companies. The other moved court and obtained a stay. The hearing scheduled for Tuesday.
Government sources said they were on track to supply textbooks to government schools, latest by the month end. Textbooks meant for government schools and private schools are printed in different colours.
