Govt bodies fight, so no new text books for MCD school students

Around 10 lakh children studying in classes I to V in over 1,700 MCD schools have to make do with old text books because the Delhi Textbook Bureau (DTB) is yet to print and supply new books to these schools as it reportedly has a running dispute with the Delhi government.

Startled by this disclosure, the Delhi High Court on Wednesday described the situation as “shocking and disturbing”.

The DTB, which was set up in May 1970, is an autonomous government body supervised by the Directorate of Education, Delhi.

The DTB has a copyright over NCERT textbooks which it reprints in Hindi. These books are then sold to all government and government-aided schools, including MCD schools. The DTB, on an order basis, prints textbooks, which are bought by the MCD and Directorate of Education, and then distributed to students free of cost.

On Wednesday, Ashok Agarwal, one of the lawyers in the court-appointed committee to inspect MCD schools, informed a bench of Acting Chief Justice A K Sikri and Rajiv Sahai Endlaw that the children in these schools await textbooks to properly start their studies for the new academic year.

“I have been informed by the teachers of these schools that the children don’t have textbooks. Where can be an occasion for the committee to comment on the infrastructural deficiencies in these schools when children are not even given the books? Whatever could be the reason, this lapse is unpardonable,” Agarwal said.

The court then asked the MCD counsel who said that the DTB had not printed and supplied them the new textbooks. Told that the DTB was under the Delhi government, the court asked the government counsel to explain why this situation had arisen. The counsel sought some time to get instructions from the department.

“The situation is shocking and disturbing... some public schools have asked their students to download the content of the books online... these poor children can’t do that... we want you to get instructions by Thursday and come back to us with definite answers,” the bench said.

Source: Indian Express