Delhi Schools irked by textbook order deadline

To ensure timely supply of textbooks to government schools in the city, the Delhi bureau of textbooks has asked all schools to inform them about their requirement for the next academic session by December 15.

The move comes in the wake of complaints received by the directorate of education (DoE) of delay in supply of books from several government schools.

According to a circular issued by the bureau to all the heads of schools (HoS’) on Tuesday, the schools will have to submit the requirements online. It also warned that the date will not be extended.

“Delhi bureau of text books has to deliver the text books for Class 1 to Class 6 at the door step of each government school of Delhi through its authorised dealers…. All HoS’ shall feed/ input the number (as per their requirement of textbooks, medium wise, keeping in mind the number of admissions for the session 2019-20),” the circular stated.

The HoS were also told that there can be no correction in the number of required books once the link is closed. “Text books will be supplied strictly as per the requirement submitted by HoS. No correction in the data will be made at the later stage,” the circular added.

Several Heads of Schools (HoS’), however, complained that time period given to upload the information was too short.

“We are already busy with the preparations of pre-board exams for Class 10 and 12. It won’t be possible to gather the data and predict the next sessions’ enrollment and come with an accurate number by December 15. We will definitely need some more time,” said the head of a girls’ school in east Delhi who did not wish to be named.

Officials at a co-ed senior secondary school in Karol Bagh cited similar reasons to protest the move.

“How can we predict the number of admissions? We are bound to take all students come for admission. What if we give smaller figure and more students turn up. How will we provide books to them,” said the HoS at the school.