Dept ignorant, children asked to photocopy content
TEAM HERALD
teamherald@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: While tracking the progress of the supply and disbursement of textbooks to school students which is yet to be completed even four weeks after the commencement of the new academic year, another irregularity has come to light ~ pages are missing from various chapters of the textbooks supplied to students during the last couple of days.
The Education Department on Thursday which claimed that it was close to completing the task of distributing textbooks, seemed ignorant of this problem; but students who have just received some of the textbooks are now hunting for the missing content.
One such case is that of geography textbooks were supplied to students of class VII on Thursday. As many as ten pages are missing from these textbooks supplied to children in a city school in South Goa. Pages 11 to 18 and pages 55 to 62 are missing from key chapters.
To add to the already vexed situation of receiving books weeks after school re-opened, the students who brought the defective copies to the notice of their respective teachers received no solace. On the contrary students having defective textbooks have been asked to get photocopies made of the missing content from those who have received textbooks which are in relatively better order.
Schools expressed helplessness as no extra books have been supplied by the Department.
Parents are fuming as the first unit test is scheduled this month and photocopies made of the missing content also have to be preserved for the first terminal exams later in October.
The Additional Director, Education department, Anil Powar said, “There could be a printing and binding problem where pages are missing”.
Powar said that the matter should be reported to the heads of institutions who can get the books exchanged from the respective ADEIs.
Infact, the Headmasters’ Association is taking up the issue of late disbursement of textbooks to students very seriously with the government, as the problem continues year after year and the Education Department is neither doing its homework in time nor learning from its past mistakes thereby jeopardizing the academic performance of students.
July 5, 2013, sees the completion of one month of the new academic year. The department said that it has completed 94 per cent of the distribution of textbooks from classes I to IV and 84 per cent for classes V to VIII.
As far as supply of notebooks for students of government schools is concerned, this exercise is likely to be completed later next week as the supplier has managed to cover only eight talukas thus far. And while the monsoon is at its peak, the supply of raincoats too has not been completed.
