Malkangiri: With only a few months left for the annual exams in schools to begin, the school and mass education department (SME) has not yet provided textbooks to thousands of students in
Maoist- affected Malkangiri district.
Unavailability of textbooks has affected studies of students adversely. Most students feel that their results will not be up to expectation.
The state government had taken disciplinary action last year on the teachers responsible for the poor performance of the students. But this year the department itself will be responsible for the poor performance of students. In this situation, intellectuals questioned who will be answerable for the ignorant nature of the concerned department.
Sources said, for a total of 8900 SC and ST students in the district, the SME department has to provide a total of 1,38,600 books of respective subjects.
However the department has distributed 3000 sets of books in the first phase and Friday another 3500 sets of books arrived at the district headquarters. There are 3400 students remaining in the district who are not provided with textbooks yet.
Four months are left for the annual examinations in schools including matriculation examination but it is the inefficiency of the SME department that students are being deprived of text books.
While examinations are almost round the corner, teachers said they are being unable to cover 1/5th of the course.
Parents wonder how the course of students will be covered with no textbooks.
When asked, district education officer said textbooks have been distributed to students which are available in the office. But the SME is delaying to provide books to students.
“We have been repeatedly reminding the SME department to provide books to the students”, he added.