Just five weeks for schools to begin classes for Class 10 students, confusion prevails among the teachers across the state with the government asking them not to use old textbooks when the revised ones have still not arrived.
Concerned over the delay in providing schools new textbooks and that it could impact timely course completion, particularly for higher classes, the principal of Sunrise High School in Peenya 2nd Stage, V Dhanalakshmi, said, "First we were told there will be no change in the syllabus and teachers can continue with old textbooks until the new ones arrive. But the government now says the syllabus will be changed and they have sought indents on the number of textbooks needed. Why is there so much confusion? Parents will soon begin questioning us on why their children don't have books."
While the state government decided to revise the syllabus for classes 9 and 10 to bring it on a par with the National Curriculum Framework, there is no clarity on lesson plans for students and teachers. "We have to spend an entire day on a new chapter. We can get on with classes smoothly when the school reopens. We need to complete the course for Class 10 by December so that we can begin revisions for board exams. Lesson plans are difficult to prepare as we handle multiple classes," said Prabhakar Rao, a science teacher in a Rajajinagar school.
Enjoying their summer break, students, on the other hand, are slightly oblivious to the issue. "My mother is a teacher in a state board school and told me about the delay in supply of revised textbooks. I don't know what the situation will be like in my school but I guess there could be some alternative till we get the new books," said a Class 9 student of Poorna Prajna Education Trust in Sadashivanagar.
Mathew Verghese, the principal of Nava Jeevan Mission School in Gokak, Belagavi, said that delay in receiving textbooks was nothing new."Last year, English books for the first semester of Class 6 were not available until six months after the school reopened. We had to manage with textbooks from the previous year and give copies of it to students," he said.
"My child's Class 7 results will be out by April-end and we have received no intimation from the school if the textbooks will be provided," said Manasa Prabhu, whose son goes to a reputed state board school in Rajajinagar.
D Shashikumar, general secretary, Associated Management of Unaided Private Budget Schools in the state which has nearly 2,000 member schools, said that the government has proposed to put the contents of the books online so that they can be printed and photocopied but doing that would be difficult. "How many copies are we going to make? We had told the education department to make the books available to parents and save us the trouble. There is no clarity on anything," he said.
Concerned over the delay in providing schools new textbooks and that it could impact timely course completion, particularly for higher classes, the principal of Sunrise High School in Peenya 2nd Stage, V Dhanalakshmi, said, "First we were told there will be no change in the syllabus and teachers can continue with old textbooks until the new ones arrive. But the government now says the syllabus will be changed and they have sought indents on the number of textbooks needed. Why is there so much confusion? Parents will soon begin questioning us on why their children don't have books."
While the state government decided to revise the syllabus for classes 9 and 10 to bring it on a par with the National Curriculum Framework, there is no clarity on lesson plans for students and teachers. "We have to spend an entire day on a new chapter. We can get on with classes smoothly when the school reopens. We need to complete the course for Class 10 by December so that we can begin revisions for board exams. Lesson plans are difficult to prepare as we handle multiple classes," said Prabhakar Rao, a science teacher in a Rajajinagar school.
Enjoying their summer break, students, on the other hand, are slightly oblivious to the issue. "My mother is a teacher in a state board school and told me about the delay in supply of revised textbooks. I don't know what the situation will be like in my school but I guess there could be some alternative till we get the new books," said a Class 9 student of Poorna Prajna Education Trust in Sadashivanagar.
Mathew Verghese, the principal of Nava Jeevan Mission School in Gokak, Belagavi, said that delay in receiving textbooks was nothing new."Last year, English books for the first semester of Class 6 were not available until six months after the school reopened. We had to manage with textbooks from the previous year and give copies of it to students," he said.
"My child's Class 7 results will be out by April-end and we have received no intimation from the school if the textbooks will be provided," said Manasa Prabhu, whose son goes to a reputed state board school in Rajajinagar.
D Shashikumar, general secretary, Associated Management of Unaided Private Budget Schools in the state which has nearly 2,000 member schools, said that the government has proposed to put the contents of the books online so that they can be printed and photocopied but doing that would be difficult. "How many copies are we going to make? We had told the education department to make the books available to parents and save us the trouble. There is no clarity on anything," he said.