U.P. Primary Pupils' wait may Extend as Approval for NCERT Books is Awaited

U.P. primary students may face delays as NCERT books await approval. Books for classes 3-8 ready, but classes 1-2 books may arrive later.

on Jan 19, 2024

U.P. Primary Pupils' wait may Extend as Approval for NCERT Books is Awaited | Frontlist

Books for classes 3–8 will be ready on time for the new academic session of 2024–2025, which begins April 1. However, the new books will take longer to reach the students of classes one and two.

Students will have to wait a little longer for the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) English, Hindi, and mathematics books, which are being introduced for the first time in the curriculum of classes 1 and 2 of 1.14 lakh government-run primary schools across the state that are administered by the UP Basic Education Council. Books for grades 3 to 8 will be available in time for the new academic session that starts in April 1 2024-25.

However, officials from the state basic education department warn it would take longer for the new texts to reach kids in classes 1 and 2.

Experts from the State Institute of Education (SIE) and the English Language Teaching Institute (ELTI), both units of the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Uttar Pradesh, collaborated with NCERT to produce books for all three subjects, but these books have yet to be authorised.

After receiving permission from the UP Basic Education Department, tenders for these books will be released, and they will be published. Officials said that if the purchase order is issued, it might take until the end of April or May 2024 for the books to reach the children's hands.

Meanwhile, on the directions of Kanchan Verma, Director General of School Education in Uttar Pradesh, most Basic Shiksha Adhikaris (BSAs) have placed purchase orders to publishers for books from classes 3 to 8 for their respective districts by January 15.

All of these books are to be delivered to the districts by 90 days of January 10, while the workbooks must be delivered within 120 days, or four months. This almost ensures that children will receive books for grades 3 through 8, beginning with the new academic session on April 1, but it is certain that the delivery of books and workbooks for grades 1 and 2 will take longer.

This time, textbooks are being acquired for around 2 crore pupils enrolled in government-run basic and upper primary schools across the state, depending on the number of students registered on the official Prerna site.

In previous years, book procurement was based on the number of pupils in records as of September 30. Many times, additional books were ordered since information from some districts exceeded the real number. Officials said that now that student data and Aadhaar numbers are available on the portal, there will be no room for waste or deliberate inflated orders that will cost the government a lot of money.

Basic Shiksha Adhikari, Prayagraj, and Praveen Kumar Tiwari confirmed that a purchase order for books and workbooks for classes 3–8 for the 2024-25 school year had been issued. Students in these classes will receive replacement books when the next session begins on April 1, he added.