The Hindu : Schools face textbook shortage

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jun 13, 2003

Southern States

Southern States - Andhra Pradesh

Schools face textbook shortage

By N. Rahul

HYDERABAD June 12. As the new academic year unfolded for schools in the State on Thursday, the institutions are faced with a severe short supply of textbooks.

Against a requirement of 8.15 crore books for 91,000 schools all over the State, the supply was no more than four crore books on the day of reopening of the institutions. Generally 80 to 90 per cent of the requirement is met by now every year.

The authorities attribute the reasons for the shortage of books to the delay in printing due to non-arrival of paper on account of the 15-day truckers strike last month. Some paper mills in Tamil Nadu, especially the State Government-owned Tamil Nadu Newsprints Limited, also faced the problem of treating paper with water owing to drought situation.

The A.P. Government Textbook Press here and the 87 other private printers in the State normally start the printing of books every year around May 5 and roll out the stocks after binding and other processes to various godowns a week later. But, the work was badly delayed by the truckers strike this year.

The Commissioner of School Education, Manmohan Singh, hoped that 75 per cent of the books will be supplied by the month-end and the total quantity by July 10. He said the priority in printing was given to books of primary classes and then of seventh and tenth standards which have public examinations.

The State Government gets the bulk of the paper through national-level tendering from an Assam Government undertaking, the Hindustan Paper Corporation Limited (HPCL), which has its mills in Guwahati and other parts of the State. Of the 17,000 metric tonnes (MTs) of paper required, the HPCL supplies almost 11,000 MTs. As the feeder channel to the rakes was affected with the trucks going off roads, a minimal supply of paper to the State was maintained by rail, Mr. Man Mohan Singh said.

The Government Textbook Press Director, R. Satyanarayana, said only 8,000 MTs of paper was received from all sources so far.

The Government supplies 73 per cent of the total quantity of books printed free of cost to children of all sections studying in Government and local body schools from classes 1 to 5 and for SC, ST, BC and physically handicapped children of classes 6 to 10 in the same institutions.

The Government Textbook Press handles 25 to 30 per cent of the printing while the remaining books are procured through outsourcing method. The Government supplies paper to the 87 private printers for producing books in black and white while the multi-colour readers for classes 1 to 5 are printed at presses selected by national-level tendering. Totally 236 titles are supplied to schools.

Mr. Satyanarayana said the State Government has introduced recycled paper supplied by Rama Newsprints, Gujarat, for the first time for its multi-colour readers for cost effectiveness and environmental consciousness. This was done without compromising on quality after due certification by the Director General of Disposals and Supplies, Delhi. This step and other cost cutting measures like reducing the thickness of the paper from 80 to 60 grams per sq.mt., saving on cover paper through excise duty relief and modifying printing process has earned the Government a saving of Rs. 6.03 crores.

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