Himalayan News Service

Gaighat, April 24:

Two weeks have passed since the new academic year has started but over 12,000 students studying in the eighth grade in scores of schools in Udayapur district are facing shortage of text books. The Lahan office of Sajha Publications until yesterday distributed 1200 sets of text books and announced that it ran out of stock. The shortage has emerged after the government amended the curriculum for eighth grade and the new books have not reached the district. “I didn’t go to the school because I have no books,” said Kamal Pariyar, student of grade eight at Triyuga Secondary School, Gaighat. This is not the first time that the district is facing shortage of text books. Last year there was a shortage of text books of different grades. The classes of the eighth grade were not conducted today at Khabu secondary school due to shortage of textbooks, said Kamal Prasad Koirala, a teacher who had reached the district headquarters to buy the books. Last year, 50 per cent of the students in our school failed in the annual examinations due to lack of text books. Same situation might occur this year, Koirala added. The Lahan office of Sajha Publication, the authorised dealer of the text books published by the Janak Education Material Centre for the government for four districts of Siraha, Udayapur, Okhaldhunga and Khotang of Sagarmatha zone, said the Sajha central office has not dispatched the books.