Bajura, September 2

Many students have yet to receive textbooks in Bajura though the data at District Education Office, Bajura and Janak Education Material Centre Regional Office, Dhangadi show that all school students of the district have received textbooks.

Schools in the district have submitted the bills of textbooks to the District Education Office and received the money.

However, five months into the new academic session, many students from various schools of the district are still deprived of textbooks.

Of the 111 students studying in Grade X of Pandusen VDC-based Satyabadi Secondary School, not a single student has received textbooks. But, the school has already submitted the bill of 95 sets of textbooks dated April 16 to the DEO.

“None of us has got new textbooks and we have been using old textbooks in the class,” a 10th grader, Bhageswori Rokaya, said. She added that their repeated requests to the school management to bring new textbooks had gone unheeded.

Similarly, the school has submitted the bills of 195 students from Grade VI while only 163 students are admitted in Grade VI. The students shared that most them were using textbooks borrowed from seniors. Similar, is the situation in other classes as well.

Students from Janaprakash Higher Secondary School, of Kolti, have not received textbooks either. According to accountant at the school, Hemraj Giri, as many as 17 set textbooks of Grade VII, 32 of Grade IX, 30 of Grade VI, five sets each of Grade V and VII are needed.

Some students of Kolti-based Panchlaxmi Lower Secondary School also haven’t received their textbooks.

Though most of the schools in the district are conducting their first terminal examinations, many students are appearing the test sans textbooks.

As many as 45,287 students from 244 public schools had received textbooks in the district, informed technical assistant at the DEO, Umesh Regmi. DEO Bajura has released more than 12 million to the local schools for procurement of textbooks.

Meanwhile, Yogendra Bhatta, chief at Janak Education Centre Regional Office, Dhangahi, said students had received textbooks, except around 40 sets of optional economics textbooks.

Though many students are without textbooks, head teachers and source persons of various schools in the district have submitted bills demanding payment for purchase of textbooks.

Civil Society senior member, Dammar Mahat, held that lack of monitoring from the regulatory agency had led to the current malpractice.