State board textbooks of classes III to X to include blank pages

As the initiative will begin with textbooks provided by the government to its own schools; the GR said, “If it works in favor of students and if there is demand, the initiative will be extended to all textbooks printed by Balbharati, the state textbook bureau, so that these will be made available in open market.”

School Education Minister Deepak Kesarkar, last September, had announced the initiative with an aim to reduce the weight of schoolbags.

According to Kesarkar, this initiative ensures that students do not have to carry separate notebooks in school bags, thereby reducing its weight.

“For children coming to government-run schools, where we distribute textbooks for free, the notebooks too will be included in the textbooks,” he had said.

But this plan has been criticised by educationists. A senior teacher from Mumbai said, “Compared to a regular use of notebooks, the two pages given in textbooks are not going to be adequate. Students will end up carrying separate notebooks. The GR also states that there can be separate notebooks for homework and other tasks.” Another teacher said, “It is common practice for younger siblings or following batches to reuse the textbooks. Now, by adding blank pages, these textbooks cannot be reused anymore.”