Paper, funds shortage hit supply of school textbooks

HYDERABAD: Notwithstanding the assurances by the authorities, supply of the part two of bilingual textbooks to government schools could be delayed beyond the September-end deadline, according to sources. Officials claim that the delay is due to non-availability of paper required for printing and the inability of the government to sanction the required funds on time.

“We had to re-tender the entire amount required for textbooks, including printing and paper costs, which was not approved by the government as the budget had escalated from last year’s `90 crore to `120 crore this year. It takes at least 36 days for one tender and we had to re-tender twice because the committee (government) wanted us to reduce the amount further.

Moreover, we need more pages as the text books will have the English version on one side and Telugu on the other,” said an official from the government textbook press department. The official said that 30 per cent of the printing is done by the department whereas the remaining work is allotted to private printers, who are also involved in the supply of papers.

The official said “There are three major reasons why delay can be expected. First is because of retenders; the second is due to shortage of raw material while the third is that the government was unable to sanction the amount on time.” As of August 25, the department has supplied 1,67,13,450 part one textbooks to all districts.

As for the part two text books only 42 per cent of the required 42,76,780 have been dispatched. Ironically, paper required for printing had arrived just two days back. “Our work ends the moment we dispatch books to districts. The distribution happens in three phases- from district to mandal and from mandal to schools,” added officials. Authors of the books are from the government department and from SCERT. The textbooks are distributed free of cost to government school students and would soon be available for sale in the market.