Parents’ assn chief terms ban on sale of books on school premises eyewash

Amit Bathla

Tribune News Service

Bathinda, June 25

The president of the Punjab Parents’ Association has termed the recent order of the government to ban the sale of textbooks and uniforms on the school premises an eyewash.

Gurwinder Sharma, president of the association, said it would not make any impact on schools’ arbitrariness as similar orders had also been issued in the past. He said they didn’t stop schools from exploiting parents. However, school principals in the city maintained that only NCERT books were recommended.

Gurwinder said, “Schools have been exploiting parents with connivance of private publishers and in return, they get a hefty commission from them. Though only a few schools have been allowing shops to operate from their premises, most of them refer parents to the nearby shops to pull the wool over parents’ eyes. The schools usually implement books of private publishers, which parents get only at selected shops in the city. Eventually, parents end up going to shops where these books are available.”

“A school gets a commission from Rs20 lakh to Rs80 lakh per year from private publishers for recommending their books,” he alleged.

“Even the CBSE recommends all its schools to follow the NCERT books for all classes. While the cost of a set of NCERT books is just Rs700 to Rs800, the price of the same set of books from private publishers is Rs7,000 to Rs8000. If schools believe that the NCERT books are not up to the standard, I would suggest the government to stop recommending them,” he said.

Suraj Setia, principal, Lord Rama Senior Secondary Public School, said: “Earlier, the CBSE had directed its affiliated schools to allow only NCERT books for its students. If the NCERT books are not available in the market, students and parents can take print out of the same from the official website of the board. We have also put a list of books on the school website.” “When it comes to uniform, we have a simple white shirt and a grey trouser that can be purchased from anywhere in the market,” he added.

Jatinder Kaur, principal, Sri Guru Harkrishan Public School, said: “Our students read 75 per cent NCERT books. For subjects like art, computer education and grammar books are of private publishers.” Recently, the Education Department had issued an order to all private schools, directing them not to refer parents to buy textbooks from particular shops.