A State government directive to give the orders for Classes 9 and 10 textbooks for the next academic year by this November 15 has led to divergent views among head teachers. While one section has welcomed it saying it will help them avert a possible shortage next year, another group foresees possible financial losses.
According to sources, head teachers used to procure textbooks each year as per demand from students from district-level book depots till 2009. From the 2010-11 academic year, schools directly started handling book distribution, which was monitored by the State authority in Thiruvananthapuram. Head teachers are supposed to place orders on behalf of schools six months in advance after assessing the demand from students.
After the Right to Education Act came into force, education till the age of 14 became free and the students till Class 8 need not pay for the textbooks. Only those in Class 9 and 10 are supposed to pay for them. Some times, some of these students get books from their seniors to avoid this, leading to excess stock in schools. Head teachers keep them for distribution for next year.
If, however, the textbooks are revised, these may not be useful and the head teachers may have to incur financial losses. A section of teachers point out that after the textbooks were revised in 2015-16 and 2018-19 academic years, some schools and the head teachers there were left in the lurch with old text books. Though a demand was made to take them back, it did not work out.
Another section of teachers, meanwhile, said that such a possibility was very remote. A head teacher from a government school in Kozhikode city claimed that placing orders in advance was a good move. “Things such as textbook revision don’t happen every year. So there is unlikely to be a chance for head teachers incurring financial losses. Placing the orders in advance will help avoid shortage of textbooks,” he added.
