MANGALORE: The frustration of children and parents due to the non-availability of textbooks for the first trimester this academic year has taken a new turn with the parents forming a federation, which will stage a protest in the city against shortage of textbooks.
The federation will seek an explanation as to why children studying in the aided and unaided schools are being treated as second-hand citizens by not being provided with textbooks, while those studying in the government schools have been supplied with textbooks in the beginning of the academic year.
The secretary of the federation, K.M.K. Manjanady, said the federation has nothing against the supply of textbooks to the government schools but the government should have made arrangements for textbooks for the aided and unaided schools also.
The federation will stage a protest in the city this month in front of the Deputy Director of Public Instruction (DDPI), he added.
The non-availability of textbooks is also a violation of the constitutional rights of the children. The federation president, Raviraj Shetty, pointed out that over 50 per cent students have been deprived of textbooks this year.
At least 1.23 lakh children in Mangalore city have been attending school without textbooks for the last 40 days. The situation is no different in five other taluks of Dakshina Kannada district, he said.
Every day, parents line up in front of stationery shops for books.
All this has made children dread the prospect of going to school without textbooks and face the wrath of their teachers.
Mohan Shenoy, president of the South Kanara Booksellers' and Publishers' Association, admits that the situation is alarming as only a few textbooks have been received for different classes. Only students of private schools are facing this situation, as books have been issued in government schools free of cost.
Sukumar, secretary of the association, told that the Directorate of Textbooks has stipulated that textbooks be printed in a certain quality of paper with watermark.
Only Mysore Paper Mills (MPM) supplies the paper that meets the specifications of the printers and publishers in the State. He said MPM is not in a position to meet the enormous demand.
As a result, many printers, who placed orders late for the paper, have not been able to supply copies of textbooks on time to retail outlets, he said.
Mr. Sukumar said that the Government has asked printers and publishers to first clear the order for free textbooks as it does not want last year's situation to repeat when students in government schools got textbooks only by December.
Following this, the requirement of private schools has been sidelined.
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