Telangana Intermediate Students Face Textbook Shortage After Syllabus Revision

Thousands of intermediate students across Telangana, including in Khammam, have been forced to attend classes without new textbooks more than a month after the academic year commenced on June 1. The shortage has particularly affected students in Telugu and Urdu mediums, as well as those in vocational streams, following a syllabus revamp by the Telangana Board of Intermediate Education (TG BIE).

The delay occurred despite a promise by the Telangana Congress government to provide free textbooks to government junior college students at the very beginning of the academic year. While English-medium textbooks were made available in the market, the first and second-year textbooks for Telugu and Urdu mediums have yet to be supplied.

In the absence of the new books, students and junior lecturers have been forced to rely on last year’s outdated textbooks, even though the TG BIE revamped the first-year intermediate syllabus for all streams. To cope with the crisis, some junior lecturers have had to use English-medium textbooks to teach Telugu-medium students.

A government junior lecturer stated that several Telugu-medium students are struggling to comprehend lessons and are finding it difficult to study at home. A senior government junior lecturer from Khammam noted that although the vocational stream syllabus was changed for the first year, textbooks have not yet been supplied, forcing them to rely on the previous year's edition.

The Telangana Gazetted Junior Lecturers Association_475 raised the issue with TG BIE Secretary Abhilasha Abhinav. Association president Dr Vaskula Srinivas and general secretary Dr Koppisetti Suresh said the delay in the supply of textbooks is causing significant hardship, particularly for students from rural areas and those studying in the Telugu medium.

The Telugu Akademi, which is tasked with writing, editing, and printing the textbooks, blamed publication challenges for the delay. Telugu Akademi chairman Prof Kurapati Venkat Narayana acknowledged the non-availability of Urdu-medium textbooks in the market, citing difficulties in finding textbook writers and editors in the Urdu medium. He added that the supply of vocational stream textbooks would commence on July 1.