At 99.7%, Bengal logs highest percentage in India in providing text books to students

Bengal is far ahead than some of the major states in the country in this parameter.

SOUMITRA NANDI | MP | 29 October 2020 | Kolkata: West Bengal has recorded the highest percentage among all other states in the country in ensuring availability of text books among school children, according to the Annual State Of Education Report (ASER) survey conducted in the month of September. 99.7 per cent of the enrolled school students in the state have text books followed by Nagaland with 99.2 per cent and Assam with 98.4 per cent.

Interestingly, Bengal is far ahead than some of the major states in the country in this parameter. Uttar Pradesh (79.6), Maharashtra (80.8) , Madhya Pradesh , Rajasthan (60.4), Odisha (88.6) , Telengana (68.1) , Tamilnadu (86.4) , Uttarkhand (80.3) are lagging much behind Bengal. States like Himachal Pradesh and Gujarat have made available 96.3 and 95 per cent text books respectively among the school students.

According to the survey 99.3 per cent students of class I and II , 99.8 per cent students in Class III to V, 99.8 percent from class VI to VIII and 99.4 percent students from class IX and above possess text books. The survey in the state was conducted in 505 villages among 3526 households. The exercise covered 273 students of Class I and II, 412 of class III to V, 400 of VI to VIII and 302 of class IX to XII.

'When we first started work in 2012, the text book distribution system was in a mess with the framing of text books of class VI to VII lying with a private publisher which was in contradiction to Right to Education Act (2009) that clearly states that publishing of text books should be a thorough government enterprise. Under the leadership of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee within a short time the entire process of text books and its distribution was streamlined,' said Avik Majumdar, chairman of Syllabus Restructure Committee.

There are 12 lakh students on an average in each class and in class I to VIII and considering the fact that five to eight books are required by each student around 1 crore books are needed for each class. Text books are published not only in Bengali but in English, Hindi, Urdu, Nepali and Santhali languages with the pockets of the regional languages spreading across all districts.

'It is a mammoth task to ensure that the making, printing and distribution process of the text books is carried out properly. The Commissioner of School Education seeks report from the District Inspectors about the distribution of books in each district and the Paschimbanga Sarva Siksha Mission supervises the entire process,' said a senior official of the state Education department.

ASER is a nationwide survey of rural education and learning outcomes in terms of reading and arithmetic skills that has been conducted by NGO Pratham for the last 15 years.

To conduct the survey, phone calls were made to parents/caregivers of children as well as head teachers or teachers in the state schools over a span of ten days in September 2020, the sixth month of continuous school closures across the country.

Standardised questionnaires were used for collecting information separately for each child in the 5-16 age group in each surveyed household.