Parents of students studying the National Curriculum must pay at least 30% to 35% of the fees from the next academic year
Post Date – 08:40 AM, Wednesday – 4/19/23
Parents of students studying the National Curriculum must pay at least 30% to 35% of the fees from the next academic year
Hyderabad: Buying textbooks for the national syllabus will be an expensive affair and burn the pockets of parents. Parents are having to spend at least 30% to 35% more on textbooks for the next school year compared to last year due to rising paper prices and increased paper thickness.
With textbooks becoming more expensive, parents whose wards are in private schools have had to bear an additional financial burden as the state government provides free textbooks to all public school students. There are nearly 11,000 private schools with 3 million students. These schools require more than 1.22 million sales component textbooks, which will be available in the market on May 1.
“Each sold component textbook that cost Rs 55 last year is now priced at about Rs 75. The cost of paper has risen and so has the cost of textbooks this year,” said an official in the school education department.
Textbook prices rose by at least 50% last year as the price of a metric ton of paper rose from Rs 61,000 in 2021 to Rs 95,000 in 2022. Eight textbooks in Category X cost Rs 1,074 in 2022, while the same textbooks in 2021 cost Rs 686.
Exact prices for this year’s textbooks will be determined once they become available.
Meanwhile, the Government Textbook Publishing House under the Ministry of School Education has sent 33 per cent of free component textbooks to district points as of April 17.
A total of 1,5748,270 free textbooks are required for 28,77,675 students in government-run institutions for the 2023-24 academic year. Of these, 1,0538,044 textbooks have reached district points from here and they will be sent to mandals and schools.
Last year, the state government introduced English instruction to classes I to VIII in all public schools in the state, and this year will add a higher class. To ensure students can easily understand the teaching in English, bilingual i.e. English and Telugu textbooks are being printed. Therefore, bilingual textbooks were also printed this year. Due to the increased page count due to bilingual languages, the textbook is provided to students in two stages, Summary I and Summary II.
“We have already sent 33% of the free component textbooks to the districts. The first-stage textbooks will be given to students before the start of the new school year, and the second-stage textbooks will be given to students in July or August,” the official added.
