Telangana: Cost of textbooks for private schools have doubled

Hyderbad: Purchasing textbooks of the state syllabus will be costly for parents of private school students from this year as the prices have raised up. While comparing it to previous year, the textbooks will cost at least 50 per cent more this year.

The main reason for the hike in prices of textbooks is said to be the cost of paper going high. Last year, the paper per metric tonne was priced at Rs 61,000 while this year the cost is Rs 95000.

For example, a bunch of eight textbooks for Class X was Rs 686 but now will cost Rs 1074 this year. Similarly, Class IV textbooks are priced at Rs 402 this year while last year they costed Rs 224.

An official stated that a total of 1.22 crore sale textbooks are required by students studying in private and corporate schools in the state. These textbooks will be available from Monday.

The Government Textbook Press dispatched 67,87,210 free textbooks on June 22, to districts where 1.6 crore textbooks are required. The distribution of books will be totally free of cost.

Earlier the state government announced introducing the English medium of instruction for Classes I to VIII in government schools, due to which the textbooks are printed in English and Telugu. For instance, each page of the lesson in Telugu medium will have an English print on the adjacent page. Similarly, for Hindi and Urdu medium students, the same topic will be available in Hindi and English, and Urdu and English respectively.

With the increase in pages, the weight of the textbooks will go high. So, the department has decided to print textbooks according to Summative Assessment (SA) 1 and II. Currently, the textbooks for SA-I are under process while SA-II books will be available in August or September.

“We will complete 70 percent of the distribution of free component textbooks by the end of this month and 100 percent by July 15. Due to an increase in paper prices, the budget for free component textbooks has doubled from Rs 60 crore last year to Rs 120 crore now,” an official said.

Starting from this year, a Quick Response (QR) code is said to be printed on all textbooks of all classes. By scanning these codes using a smartphone, students will get access to view and self-learn lessons.