For Gujarati-medium students of government primary schools in the state,error-free textbooks remain a distant dream even as they gear up to begin the new academic session from June 1. The students of Class VI-VIII will yet again have to manage with textbooks replete with factual and printing errors in subjects like English,mathematics and science. The Gujarat State Board of School Textbooks (GSSTB),despite assurances of error-free textbooks it made in the last session,has failed to correct these errors. The Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) claimed that corrections were passed on to the textbook board last year only. GSSTB,however,claimed that the GCERT updated textbooks from Class VI-VIII. The Gujarati-medium curriculum have been updated by the GCERT. The textbook CDs were handed over to the printers. It is the old stock of textbooks with the stockists that have errors, said GSSTB director H K Patel. The director said that these books were supplied free of cost to government schools by the board. The supply and distribution to government schools had already started,he said. He added that the same books were sold to private schools and will be supplied to the dealers in the next 15 days. The GCERT curriculum coordinator Haresh Chaudhary,however,claimed that the curriculum was revised last year and no changes have been made this year. After receiving alerts from schools last year,we pointed out the errors to the textbook board and the education department officials. They decided to provide a written supplementary along with the textbooks and a CD was also distributed in all schools. Also,a one-day training session through video conference was conducted for all primary school teachers to apprise of these corrections, said Chaudhary. As the curriculum was revised last year,the new books were printed in abundance,much more than what was required by the schools. The board has no other option,but to distribute old books. The booksellers,who have the stock of old books,are in a fix. Currently,there is a stock of around 6-7 crore copies of old books with nearly 10,000 retailers in the state, revealed Gujarat Booksellers and Stationers Association president Naresh Shah. He added that the supplementary on corrections had not been provided with the textbooks yet.
