Cash-strapped pvt schools yet to buy textbooks, depend on e-books

Several school managements reported a shortage of  funds and their inability to buy textbooks from the government.About  13,000  private  schools  function  in Tamil Nadu providing education to lakhs  of  students  from  elementary  to  secondary  level.

These  private  managements  have  to  provide  salaries  to  more than 2.6 lakh teachers.Tamilnadu  Textbook  Corporation,  the nodal agency to print textbooks in the  State,  has  more  than  three  crore  textbooks  ready  but  only  a  few  self-financing schools have approached.

KR   Nandhakumar,   general   secretary  of  Tamil  Nadu  Private  Nursery,  Primary,  Matriculation,  Higher  Secondary,  and  CBSE  Schools  Association, said the schools tapped into their savings  to  pay  salaries  and  procure  textbooks for their students during the first total lockdown in March 2020.“Many  schools  could  not  give  salaries  to  its  teaching  staff  after  October  2020  since  parents  could  not  pay  fees  due  to  financial  constraints.

Despite  the High Court order that fees could be collected in instalments, many parents are yet to pay last year’s dues,” he said.Stating  that  many  private  schools  could  not  even  pay  electricity  bills,  Nandhakumar  said,  “this  year,  there  are    no    resources    left    for    many    institutions.

”Pointing  out  that  the  State  government  also  did  not  reimburse  RTE  fees  for the previous year, he said “reading the  current  situation,  the  School  Education    Department    should    provide    textbooks at free of cost.

”Echoing  similar  views  of  Nandha-kumar,  Federation  of  Associations  of  Private  Schools  in  Tamil  Nadu  secretary DC Elangovan also urged the government  to  give  interest-free  loans  to  the private schools in financial crisis.“We had urged the previous government  to  provide  financial  assistance  last  year.  We  hope  the  new  government  would  look  into  our  issues  and  save from the financial crisis,” he said.

B Saraswathi, principal of a private school  in  Pammal,  said,  “we  have  not  purchased  the  textbooks  till  now.  As  the  online  classes  would  be  starting  soon,  we  have  asked  the  teachers  and  students  to  download  e-textbooks  for  time being.”