New Balbharati textbook pages land up in scrap market

Mumbai: Pages of the newly launched integrated textbook by Balbharati, the Maharashtra State Bureau of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research, have become already become scrap. The incident came to light after a teacher from a state-run school in Aurangabad posted pictures on social media of a local medical store’s paper bag made from pages of the textbook. The textbook was very recently distributed to students from Classes 1 to 8.

“It is sad to see a page of a newly distributed Balbharati textbook used as a paper bag by a medical store nearby,” said the teacher who posted the photos. “The bags also had the Balbharati watermark.”

HT on June 20 had reported on the poor-quality binding of the new integrated textbooks, which had led to pages coming loose. Subsequently, Balbharati had announced that it would change the defective copies. “Nothing happened, and now, within 15 days, the pages are available in the scrap market,” said another teacher.

The Integrated Textbook Scheme, a pilot project of the Maharashtra government, was implemented this year with the intention of streamlining the education system. The scheme entails students carrying a single book containing all subjects instead of individual textbooks for each one. In line with this, four volumes of textbooks were prepared for Marathi-medium students in Classes 1 to 8. While all four books were distributed to students, only the first part is currently being used in schools.

Mahendra Ganpule, a spokesperson for the Maharashtra Principals Association, said that it was “a bad feeling” for teachers to see a page of a current textbook being used as a paper bag within 15 days of its coming into the market. “This is a failure of the system,” he said. “But instead of just blaming the system, some teachers have taken it upon themselves to explain to students what to do. If the pages are falling out, the students will have to staple them or stitch or glue them back. The teachers only need to help a little.”

Balbharati has distributed over 4.5 crore copies of the textbook in question to government and government-aided schools across the state. It has also supplied 1.5 million copies to the open market.