In Ludhiana, new academic session to begin sans textbooks

Even with the new academic session set to begin from April 1 in government schools, the textbooks have not reached the students yet.

The distribution process of textbooks from the PSEB depot to blocks started on Tuesday. Over 1.8 lakh textbooks have been sent to four blocks out of the total 19 in the district.

The board’s depot in the city, which caters to the entire district, has received over 11,48,633 textbooks of 103 titles out of the total 183.

As many as 1,85,422 textbooks, meant for free distribution among students from Classes 1 to 8 and those under SC/ST and BC categories from Classes 9 and 10, were sent to Ludhiana 1 block, Ludhiana 2, Mangat 1, and Mangat 2 till Wednesday.

Last year, the schools were closed due to the Covid 19 pandemic owing to which the textbook distribution process got affected. The sanitized books were sent to blocks from May 13 onwards.

Bhupinder Kaur, block primary education officer, Mangat-1 block, said, “We have received textbooks and will disburse them to cluster schools tomorrow. We have written to the higher authorities to provide us with a grant to send the books to cluster schools. There are seven cluster schools in our block which further have 51 schools under them.”

However, Tripta Rani, the BPEO of Ludhiana 1 block, said, “We have received four trucks till now. Textbooks will be provided to schools at the earliest. We sent the books to Government Primary School, Giaspura, on Tuesday, and the rest will be delivered to schools in the next few days. Our block will receive 3 lakh textbooks in total.”

The BPEO’s and district officials have been on their toes to transport the textbooks to government schools.

Kuldeep Singh, deputy district education officer, elementary, said, “The textbooks received at the depot were sent to four blocks on Tuesday and Wednesday. The block primary education officers (BPEO) will further send the books to the schools, which will further be handed over to parents from Monday. All textbooks are available online on the Educare app, and teachers will teach the topics from it. As soon as we receive the new textbooks, the BPEOs will ensure that they are sent to schools in time.”

Begin academic session online from April 1: DEO

After the government schools in the district declared the results of non-board classes on Wednesday through WhatsApp groups, Harjit Singh, district education officer, secondary, instructed the school heads to begin the new academic session virtually.

The teachers must be directed to hold online classes and a proper schedule should be prepared.

As many as 1,527 government schools, that include primary, middle, high and senior secondary, declared the result on Wednesday.