Telangana: School Education department dispatch textbooks to districts

A total of 1,67,13,450 free component textbooks were dispatched by Government Text Book Press, a wing of the School Education department, to district points and there after will be sent to mandal points and later to schools.

Hyderabad: The Government Text Book Press, a wing of the School Education department, has dispatched 1,67,13,450 free component textbooks to district points, which is 100 per cent of the total requirement for the academic year 2022-23. These textbooks meant for government and local body schools across the State will now be sent to mandal points and later to schools.

Every year, the free component textbooks reach schools before the start of the academic year. However, this time, the process was delayed due to high paper prices besides the department going in for a re-tendering process.

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Another reason for delay in distribution of textbooks, according to officials, was printing of bilingual textbooks. As the Telangana government introduced English medium in all government and local body schools across the State, bilingual textbooks were printed to help non-English medium students transition to English medium easily.

The bilingual textbooks for non-language subjects have been made available in two languages. Each page of a lesson in Telugu medium has an English version on the adjacent page as well. Likewise, for Hindi and Urdu medium students, the same topic is in both Hindi and English languages, and Urdu and English languages respectively.

With textbooks in bilingual, the number of pages increases, thereby increasing the weight of the textbook. As a result, the department decided to provide two textbooks for the non-language subjects, one each for Summative Assessment-I and II.

“The 1,67,13,450 textbooks dispatched to the district points are the first phase of distribution. In the second phase, 42 lakh textbooks are required and printing of the same will conclude by the end of September, and distribution will be done by October 15,” a senior official said.

This academic year, Quick Response (QR) codes have been printed on all textbooks of Classes I to X. On scanning these QR codes, using smartphones, students can view and self-learn lessons.