Chennai: The new textbooks printed under revised syllabus for classes 1,6,9 and 11 are costlier by over 60% compared to older books, parents said.
The state government has started the work of revising textbooks in a phased manner. During 2017-18, the textbooks for classes 1, 6, 9 and 11 have been revamped. The sales of class 11 textbooks for private schools students began on Monday.
A parent said one set of textbooks for class 11 Maths-Biology group costs around '1,000 which used to cost only half the amount for the old books. Particularly, the prices of Maths, Chemistry, Physics textbooks have been increased by more than 100% this year, they alleged.
While revising the syllabus, the school education department and textbook corporation have completely changed the outlook of the books. “It is true that the new textbooks are costlier. But, the books are very colourful and child-friendly,” a private school principal said.
Even after the price increase, the books cost 30% less compared to other books available in the market, he added.
The officials of Tamil Nadu Textbook Corporation and Educational Services Corporation said the price hike is inevitable as the number of pages and quality of the printing have increased several folds this year.
“The textbooks with QR codes have to be printed in high-quality paper. The space between the lines, font size and importance to the images have been uniformly increased which has the same number of pages for almost all the subjects,” officials explained.
While printing the book covers in high-quality paper, the books also were laminated this year to prevent damage. The textbook corporation has increased the books after a gap of 12 years.
