Bajura, March 5 Although the School Leaving Certificate examinations are just a few weeks away, many students in the remote villages of Bajura are preparing for the exams without textbooks. Bachdhan Thapa, a tenth grader at Bichhyan Secondary School in Bichhayan of Bajura, said he had not yet received textbooks of four subjects, including mathematics and science. Along with Thapa, as many as 40 students from his school are preparing for the examinations without textbooks. Not only tenth graders, students from other classes too have not received textbooks of all subjects. As many as 250 students are studying in the school at present. Dhanraj Thapa, a teacher at the school, said preparations were on to start exams of other classes from March 20. Akash Thapa, a ninth-grader at the school, said that he had borrowed old textbooks from his neighbours to prepare for the exams. “We never get full set of textbooks. No one comes here for monitoring,” said Thapa. Local Arjun Rokaya said students from seven schools, including Sunnada Lower Secondary School, Thulakot Lower Secondary, never received adequate textbooks for students. Similarly, students from Saileswori Secondary and Bageswori Secondary at Rugin VDC are also preparing to take SLC exams without textbooks. “We cannot stop our children from taking exams though they have not yet received textbooks,” said Shankar Malla, a local. As many as 103 schools in Kolti area of the district have not received adequate textbooks. Teachers say that they were running classes using old textbooks. Umesh Regmi, technical assistant at DEO, admitted that students were preparing for the exams without textbooks in Kolti area. “DEO sends the fund for textbook procurement to schools, but students never get textbooks due to negligence on the part of schools and Janak Educational Material Center,” said Regmi. This year, Janak Educational Material Center had set up depots in all district headquarters and sold books to the retailers with a discount of nine per cent. One agent said they could not transport textbooks to remote villages as they had a very low profit margin. Chandra Khati, a book seller at Martadi, said there was textbook shortage in the area as Janak Education Material Centre had given them a very low profit margin.