3 months into academic year, students still wait for books

Ghaziabad: Three months have passed, and students in classes 1 and 2 at government schools are still awaiting the arrival of new books. Unlike previous years, the books are supposed to be distributed according to the new NCERT syllabus this year. Hence, continuing academic discourse with old books is a challenge as the new syllabus and course contents are still not known, teachers said.
Until the new books are distributed, teachers have been instructed to provide lessons through audio-visual means such as plays and stories and from old books.
“The delay in receiving books has been a norm in primary schools. We often get books by Oct every year. But until last year, we could at least manage by distributing the old books. However, this year, the syllabus has changed, and it is challenging as we are unaware of the contents of the new books,” said Hamid, principal of a primary school in Ghaziabad.
Teachers said changing books midway through the session will make it difficult for children to adapt. Most teachers have resorted to oral lessons, focusing on basic concepts like alphabets and numbers. “If the govt had planned to roll out the new books as per the National Education Policy by this year, then why did they not print them in advance? It leads to major learning loss for children. Teachers, too, need time to understand the new syllabus,” said a teacher from a primary school in Noida.
According to officials, many textbooks have been changed, like ‘Kalrav’ for Hindi will be replaced with Sarangi 1 for class 1, and ‘Kislay’ will be replaced with Sarangi-2 .
Other new books include Anandamay Math-1 (class 1) and Anandamay Math-2 (class 2) for mathematics, and Mridangam-1 (class 1) and Mridangam-2 (class 2) for English.
According to officials, books will take more time to be distributed from the state. “It is not in our hands. As soon as the books are distributed from the state, we will provide them to the kids,” said OP Yadav, basic education officer.