Chennai: After a month-long delay in releasing part 1 of mathematics and social science textbooks, CBSE Class IX students are made to suffer again as the NCERT is yet to distribute part 2 books for these subjects. The books should have been in by Aug.“Every year, a particular book is revised, and a particular class faces delayed distribution of books. This year, it is Class IX. The first part of the books, which were supposed to arrive by May, came 15 days after the school reopened in June. The board must do something to plug such issues,” the principal of a school in Kilpauk said.School heads and parents said the problem was likely to worsen when the second term begins, by the last week of Sept or the following week. A digital or PDF copy of the book was made available last month. “The quarterly exams are underway. Several schools completed the first term weeks ago and started the second term portions for other subjects except math and social science. Even officials are unable to provide a deadline as to when the books will reach us,” a principal said.Learning from PDF copies, especially for subjects such as maths, is difficult. “It is difficult for the teachers and students. How many students can take printouts? We have been training the teachers to teach from digital copies. We are expecting the books to land by the end of this month,” said J Sundar, principal, Bala Vidya Mandir, Adyar.When contacted, the CBSE regional office said the books had been revised in line with the National Education Policy (NEP). It said the issue was the same in other parts of the state too and that the printing/distribution rested only with the NCERT.
