Morung Express News
Kohima | April 6
It has been nearly 3 months since the new academic session started, but students of Government Primary Schools in Nagaland are yet to receive books from the State Government. None of the primary schools in the state have received books despite the academic session in full swing and the first quarterly assessment expected in May.
There are around 2000 Government Primary Schools in Nagaland state.
For the students, this is greatly hampering their learning while the teachers are faced with the arduous challenge to teach the students sans the text books. With limited options, teachers use their handbooks or old textbooks to teach the students which are not effective in many teaching scenarios.
According to teachers of government primary schools, the Department of School Education had informed that by first week of March that the textbooks would reach their respective schools.
“Since March, the department had assured us that the textbooks would be supplied. But what we hear now is that the books haven’t even reached the district headquarters,” Heikieleung Zeliang, a primary teacher and president of Nagaland Government Primary Teachers Association informed.
The consignment of textbooks normally reaches Dimapur first. From there, the books are then dispatched to the district headquarters and onwards to the sub-divisions and the villages.
Zeliang stated that the first quarterly assessment was just around the corner but without textbooks, it would be impossible to conduct the assessment. The first quarterly are generally held in the month of May.
As per the norms of the government, every student should receive books on the first day of the academic year which begins either in January last or February first week.
Speaking to The Morung Express, Director of School Education, Senthang on Wednesday expressed helplessness on the delay of the distribution of the textbooks while stating that “things were being handled by the higher-ups.”
For the delay, the Director also held responsible a new business firm ‘Unique Enterprise’ from Dimapur which has been engaged for the printing and supply of the textbooks. “This is very unfortunate and the department is equally concerned but the supplier has not been able to provide the books in time,” Senthang informed.
According to Additional Director Pollem Tep, textbooks from class 2 till class 4 have already reached Dimapur since March but the department was waiting for the consignment of class 1 text books so that they can be distributed in one go.
When queried on the reason for the change of the publishing and distributing firm, which in previous years was engaged to another firm, both the Director and Additional Director said they were unaware of the reason, since the recommendation for the present firm was given by the Minister of School Education himself.
Going by the norm of the State Government, the textbooks should have reached all the schools by first week of February. However, the firm handling the publishing and distribution of the books has been stalling again and again to fulfill this despite repeated communication, Tep stated.
Due to continuous delay in the supply of the books, Tep informed that the School Education Department recently obtained a written assurance that the final consignment of the books should be supplied on or before April 10. “We have also been verbally told by the firm that the books would reach Dimapur by April 7,” the Additional Director added.
But even if the remaining textbooks do arrive on the given date, the department may take a while to sort out the haphazard packaging of the textbooks before it is distributed.
“We categorically informed them that the textbooks should be packed in 100/150 books per bag and according to class wise and subjects. But we found that the textbooks have been packed randomly,” the Additional Director stated.
