Jammu: Education, parents say has become a business enterprise in Jammu and Kashmir as admitting a child to any private school is an uphill task. The nexus between private publishers and schools has also become a point of contention for several years now, with private schools continuing to prescribe highly-priced private publishers’ books, despite the availability of more economical options in the market.
A parent showed the bill for a book-set for class 6th which included 26 different books including four NCERT books costing Rs 6,676. While the government attempts to enforce the Madras High Court ruling enforcing private schools affiliated with CBCSE to use NCERT books, the schools seem to have found a loophole.
Every year, private schools release book lists to parents wherein they claim that books can be purchased in the open market. However, parents argue that books are only available at select shops.
“They issue a list of books including four NCERT books and then 22 other books. The NCERT books cost approximately Rs 958. But after adding other school-prescribed books that are available only from these select booksellers, the final bill reaches up to Rs 6,676,” said a parent.
Many parents in Jammu while talking to The Straight Line said that giving education to their wards has become an expensive affair with each passing day. They said open loot by private schools is going on unchecked, which shows the failure of the state government as well as the Education department.
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Parents also said it is no secret that most of the private schools in the state have a nexus with the booksellers as well as the uniform makers as they get a huge commission as parents must purchase these items from the prescribed booksellers and uniform sellers.
“We parents have no choice as schools tie up with the vendors of books and uniforms,” said a parent.
School’s name on Bill Receipt
Another indicator of the alleged nexus between private schools and booksellers is the fact that on the bill of the book-set, the name of the school or its initials are specified. These booksellers also have printed stationery from different schools available for purchase at a higher cost than normal notebooks.
“A simple notebook which can be bought from the market costing Rs 20-30 is sold at more than double the rate and the schools make it mandatory to purchase stationers from these select shops also. They give us an address and a list and despite knowing that we are being looted, we have no other option,” said a parent showing the bill.
Madras High Court Ruling
The issue came to the fore in 2018, when the Madras High Court directed the CBSE to ensure that even private schools affiliated to it use NCERT books and not private publishers’ books. However, several leading schools in the city have decided to ignore the state government’s order for all CBSE-affiliated private schools.
The Madras High Court had also asked the Union Government to direct the state governments and UTs to form special squads to inspect schools and prevent the use of non-prescribed books. The Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) had directed all state governments and UTs to show compliance with the Madras High Court orders and send an action taken report to the ministry.
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The UT Education Department does not provide lists of prescribed textbooks to private schools. Hence, private schools affiliated to the CBSE prescribe non-NCERT books. In government schools, only NCERT books are prescribed and used. Following the orders of the Madras High Court, the CBSE appealed against the direction on the use of NCERT books. The Madras High Court showed displeasure at CBSE’s move and said, “This court has every reason to believe that there is a hidden agenda between CBSE officials and private book publishers. That’s the reason why even a direction to use only NCERT books is being appealed by the CBSE.”
In the new affiliation by-laws released by the CBSE last year, it is not mandatory for schools affiliated to it to prescribe textbooks published by the NCERT. The issue of private publishers and their high-priced textbooks has not been limited to just the CBSE. Across India, private schools have been accused of running a monopoly in connivance with booksellers and book publishers without any enforcement of only NCERT books in schools.
Book-sellers and private schools justify the link
“We download the syllabus prescribed the schools ahead of time and then make sure that we order such books in advance. We create these sets for the benefit of the parents so they do not have to run from one shop to another to find different books. Other sellers can also do the same,” argued the book-seller.
A private school owner also justified the long list of books by saying that “NCERT books are not sufficient for teaching young children and the carefully curated list of books makes teaching and learning easier.”
The parent of a Class 1st student argued, “They have recommended 15 books costing nearly Rs 4900 and my child is just in Class 1st. They also asked me to buy notebook sets of 12 notebooks costing Rs 780. Why do I have to buy notebooks from them? But if my child goes without the notebook, he will be punished in school.”
