Textbook Row | Additional books will be supplied at earliest: Joint Secretary Publications

Srinagar, June 27: The J&K Board of School Education (JKBOSE) on Thursday said that the additional requirement of textbooks would be supplied at the earliest, as the BOSE had “adequate stock” of almost all the titles available.

The statement comes on a day Greater Kashmir reported about the absence of textbooks in schools, leaving the students in academic limbo.

The Joint Secretary Publications BOSE, Sanjeev Goswami in a statement said that the board had recently received the additional requirements along with the pending titles for the textbooks from the office of Director School Education Jammu (DSEJ) and Director School Education Kashmir (DSEK) on June 21 and June 26.

“In this connection, it is stated that the additional requirement, will be supplied at the earliest, as the BOSE has adequate stock of almost all the titles,” Goswami said.

Following the Greater Kashmir report on the absence of textbooks in school, the School Education Department (SED) has been asked to take stock of the situation and necessary corrective actions as well.

Meanwhile, regarding the dearth of textbooks particularly Urdu and Kashmiri, Joint Secretary Publications said that the textbook of Urdu for class 3rd had already been distributed among all the Zonal Education Officers (ZEOs) and the board had adequate stock available in the BOSE store of Kashmir division.

“The textbooks about Kashmiri for all classes have already been supplied to the registered booksellers in the entire Kashmir. Nevertheless, ample stocks of these textbooks are also available at the Textbooks Store, BOSE Campus, Bemina, Srinagar,” he said.

Greater Kashmir in its previous story had reported that the BOSE does not provide textbooks of Kashmiri free to government schools from class 3rd primary onwards.

“The government pays for Kashmiri textbooks only for class 1st and 2nd primary. The textbook of Kashmiri subjects is available with the approved booksellers in the market,” a BOSE official earlier told Greater Kashmir.

The official said that the textbooks, available at the BOSE office were supposed to be taken by the team deputed by the concerned ZEOs.

“The textbooks are available but ZEOs have to send the team and take the textbooks for further distribution to schools,” the official said.

Meanwhile, the Joint Secretary Publications BOSE, Sanjeev Goswami said that the BOSE received a requisition of a Kashmiri language book only for class 1st and 2nd primary classes.

“For the rest of the classes, the textbooks have been supplied to the booksellers," he said.