In-house exams in May, books still away

Sanjay Bumbroo

Tribune News Service

Fatehgarh Sahib, April 27

Students of classes I to VIII in Fatehgarh Sahib district have not received their textbooks yet. This despite the fact that the in-house examination is to be held in May.

  The new session began three weeks ago and the Education Department hasn’t got its act together. As many as 35,000 students are studying in 673 schools in the district and some of them still need four to five books out of nine.

The situation is no better in primary schools where students of classes I to V have got only one or two books out of eight. The Education Department, it seems, is not sure if the students will be able to get the complete set of books by the end of July.

  This has become a cause of concern for parents and teachers as without books how are they going to prepare for the in-house exams in May.  Though some schools have made stopgap arrangements and borrowed books from senior students, they are unable to provide the material to every student. According to department officials, the number of students has increased this year.

District Education Officer (Elementary) Surinder Ghai said the department had distributed all books received by it from the state government among the students. He said they had already brought the matter before the higher authorities and they hoped to get the remaining books in the month of June-July. The students were being provided the books of senior students so that their studies was not affected, he added.