2 years on, students in Haryana's Nuh await free books

Tribune News Service

Sumedha Sharma

Gurugram, May 10

Two months into the new academic session in Haryana, the students of government schools in Nuh are yet to receive free textbooks from the Education Department.

The wait for books, in fact, has been continuing for two years as the students didn’t get books during the Covid pandemic. The primary students have been the worst sufferers as they, in view of the government’s no-detention policy, were promoted to the next class and they can hardly read or write, says a teacher.

The district has 499 primary, 306 middle, 23 high and 115 senior secondary schools. It also has five Kasturba Gandhi, five Aarohi Model and 11 Sanskriti Model schools. As per records, there are 1.40 lakh primary students, 55,000 in Classes VI to VIII and over 2.30 lakh in Classes IX to XII. All of them have not received books.

“Children here come to school only because education is free. They spend the day loitering around or playing in ground. Despite repeated reminders to the higher-ups, books haven’t arrived,” says a teacher at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Mahavidyalya. “With no books, how do we teach? The district already suffers from staff crunch and high student-teacher ratio. Books should have been arranged before March,” says Rajesh Sharma, president of Haryana Primary Teachers Union.

While District Education Officer AR Khan was unavailable for comment, a senior official said they were in touch with the government for early delivery of books.

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