Delhi high court pulls up govt over delay in distribution of textbooks

The Delhi high court on Tuesday took a dim view of the Delhi government’s delay in distributing books to students studying in classes 6 to 8 in government schools, lamenting that children in the first part of the academic session have virtually gone without books.

A bench led by acting chief justice Manmohan expressed dismay after a Directorate of Education (DoE) official admitted to the delay in printing study materials from classes 6 to 8. Attributing the delay to the change in curriculum, the official informed that though printing was in the pipeline, there was no break in classes since students were given old books for the time being.

“The first session is virtually over. Students have virtually gone without books... Where has the mistake been committed? In private schools, teaching must be going on,” a bench also comprising justice Manmeet PS Arora asked Commissioner labor, DoE, who was present in the court.

The court voiced displeasure days after it criticised the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government for its failure to provide textbooks and uniforms to students in municipal schools. In its April 29 order, the court characterised the government’s explanation as “shedding crocodile tears” and highlighted that the real issue at hand was power, control, turf dominance and credit.

The court was addressing a plea filed by a non-profit organisation, Social Jurist, highlighting the failure of the Delhi government schools in imparting full-time education to students. The petition, argued through advocate Ashok Agarwal, stated that some of the schools being run by the Delhi government in the northeast district were following a mechanism in which teaching was being imparted to students for two hours on alternate days.

It was alleged that some state-run schools were not imparting full-time education adding that there were 45-190 students in each class against the norm of 40 students. The plea stated that though the northeast district had a high strength of 145,900 students, the enrolment was quite high as 48 schools were running in 25 school buildings.

During the hearing on Tuesday, the NGO, represented by advocate Ashok Agarwal, submitted that the DoE, despite the high court’s order, failed to distribute books to the students and transfer money to their bank accounts.

The DoE official submitted that the department printed and distributed textbooks for students studying in classes 4 and 5, and its planning wing will transfer the funds to the bank accounts of students studying in classes 9 and 10 for purchasing textbooks.