Second semester of academic year has already started but still there are no books for lakhs of students in Gujarat.
Actually, there are nearly 7 lakh students of standard 6 , 7 and 8 of Gujarat education board. Presently only 2 lakh copies of text books are only available in market.
However, president of Gujarat Pathya Pustak Mandal is denying the allegations of dearth of text books in the market.
It is learnt that actually there is an issue of tendering process of Gujarat education board, every year by this time tender is floated to get papers for publishing and printing contract from various publishers.
Earlier, contract of supply of paper and printing contract of text books were awarded to 115 publishers but now it has been reduced to some 50 publishers.
It is alleged that due to last minute pressure the tender was cancelled and online tender was released. For the tender floated in December, actual supply and execution of the contract takes place in next March.
One side Gujarat government claims to raise the standard of education and on the other side there is a dearth of text book in the market which is very frustrating for students and parents.
