School textbooks to cost 30% less

Hyderabad: Come next academic year, Telangana school textbooks will cost less. Thanks to the cut in rates of the government textbooks. The textbooks will be cheaper nearly by 30 per cent. This is because cost of paper used for printing the books has come down.

Presently, a set of books for primary class students costs Rs 200 to 250, upper primary-Rs 400 to 500 and for high school students it is between Rs 500 and Rs 650. Now these textbooks rates will come down by nearly 30 per cent. While textbooks rate will come down, they will not be available before the commencement of the next academic year i.e, from March 21.

The government has advanced the academic year from June to March which is on the lines of the Central Board of Secondary Education academic calendar. As there is a delay in finalising the tenders, printing and supply of textbook would take one to two months, new textbooks will not available before the commencement of the academic year.

According to directorate officials, in an alternative plan, the government want students to handover their textbooks to the school managements which would be used for teaching junior students. Meanwhile, the private school managements seem to have budged on using government textbooks. The private managements refuse to use government prescribed textbooks during last academic year. Now with an ultimatum from the government they are planning to use government textbooks.