Textbook shortage affects intermediate students across Telangana

Thousands of Telangana intermediate students, particularly those in Telugu and Urdu medium, are attending classes without new textbooks more than a month into the academic year. Lecturers say syllabus revisions have worsened the situation, while the Telugu Akademi attributes delays to publication challenges.

Hyderabad: Even as a month had passed since the commencement of the academic year, thousands of intermediate students were attending the classes without textbooks. This comes at a time when the Telangana Congress government had promised to provide free textbooks to government junior college students at the beginning of the academic year itself.

While the English medium textbooks have been made available in the market, the Telugu and Urdu medium first and second year intermediate textbooks are yet to be supplied to students. This is impacting students who took admission in Telugu medium in the government junior colleges, which commenced academic year on June 1.

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In absence of new textbooks, students and junior lecturers are forced to rely on last year’s textbooks, even though the Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (TG BIE) revamped the first-year intermediate syllabus for all streams. Adding to woes of Telugu-medium students, some junior lecturers are being forced to teach from English-medium textbooks.

“As a result, several Telugu-medium students are struggling to comprehend lessons and are finding it difficult to study at home,” said a government junior lecturer.

The problem extends to vocational streams and Urdu-medium intermediate textbooks, which are yet to be printed. The Telugu Akademi has been facing difficulties in finding writers and editors for Urdu-medium textbooks. This has delayed writing, editing, and printing the textbooks.

“We have been informed that the vocational stream syllabus has been changed for the first-year intermediate, but textbooks are yet to be supplied, forcing us to rely on the previous year’s edition,” said a senior government junior lecturer from Khammam.

Every year, the State government extends free textbooks to students of the government junior colleges at the beginning of the academic year. This time, the TG BIE revised the intermediate first-year syllabus for the academic year 2026-27. Like every year, the Telugu Akademi has been entrusted with the job of writing, editing, and printing the textbooks.

Raising the issue with TG BIE Secretary and Intermediate Education Department Director Abhilasha Abhinav, the Telangana Gazetted Junior Lecturers Association_475 president Dr Vaskula Srinivas and general secretary Dr Koppisetti Suresh said the delay in supply of textbooks is causing significant hardship, particularly for students from rural areas and those studying in the Telugu medium.

Speaking to ‘Telangana Today’, Telugu Akademi chairman Prof Kurapati Venkat Narayana acknowledged non-availability of Urdu-medium textbooks in the market.

“We are facing difficulties in finding textbook writers and editors in Urdu medium, and hence the delay. Supply of vocational stream textbooks will commence on July 1,” he added.