2024-25 session: UP Board books not yet printed due to royalty, GST issues
More than 1 crore students in over 27,000 secondary schools without textbooks even three months after start of new session
UP Board textbooks have not been printed till date due to a dispute over royalty and GST between it and the NCERT. This is why more than 1 crore students of classes 9 to 12 of more than 27,000 secondary schools of the state affiliated to UP Board have not got the promised cheap books even three-and-a-half-months after the start of the new academic session 2024-25.
Every year, usually by the first week of July, National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus-based textbooks become available in bookshops for students.This year, there is no trace of the textbooks despite the second week of July having passed. NCERT has not received more than ₹2 crore of royalty and GST from publishers for the year 2021.
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As per state secondary education department officials, the publishers who were entrusted with the task of publishing textbooks in 2021 have filed a petition in the Allahabad high court claiming that they have suffered losses due to non-sale of books during the Covid period and so they are unable to pay the royalty and GST dues.
They say this matter is still pending in the high court. “On the other hand, NCERT has not yet given the right to publish books this year due to non-receipt of this pending royalty and GST. UP Board and state government officials have corresponded with the central government and the NCERT several times seeking permission to publish books for this year but to no avail,” said a senior official of the UP secondary education department.
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“We are striving to resolve the issue with the central government so that students can get textbooks at cheaper prices in UP in accordance with the practice of recent years. Meanwhile, NCERT books are available in the state for students of classes 9 to 12,” said Deepak Kumar, additional chief secretary, secondary education, U.P.
“The publishers had to pay the royalty and the GST to NCERT, but they have gone for litigation over it. The NCERT has not yet granted permission to publish the books this session. We are in constant correspondence with NCERT over it and the issue will be resolved as a priority soon. Meanwhile alternative arrangements have been made and students are being taught after downloading the soft copies of the books from UP Board’s website,” said Mahendra Dev, director, secondary education), U.P.
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According to officials, even if the right to publish is obtained today, it will take at least two months for the books to be printed and reach the market. First, a tender will be issued by the UP Board on behalf of the state government and then a minimum of two months will have to be given for publication of books of different subjects to the selected publishers, they add. Meanwhile, students and teachers continue to face hardships for lack of books.
“With the books yet not available, teachers are making do with specimen copies of the books made available to them last year and are teaching students in small huddles in classrooms,” said Santosh Shukla, principal, Lal Bahadur Shastri Inter College, Dharwara in Karachhana development block of Prayagraj.
He said parents are also frequently walking in with complaints of prescribed textbooks not being available in the market. “High school and intermediate students are especially worried,” he added.
Jyoti Pandey, a student of class 9 of the school, said she along with her father has been frequenting the book shops but prescribed textbooks are nowhere available, and the shopkeepers are also unable to say when the books would become available. “All they have are books of other publishers which are very costly,” she says.
Principal of KP Inter College, Civil Lines in Prayagraj, Yogendra Singh said, “We are somehow managing with last year’s books. Immediate intervention is needed to ensure that books become available immediately in the market.”
Teachers point out that the UP Board issued academic calendar on April 12 and the course is to be completed by first week of January 2025. However, this is a huge challenge owing to lack of textbooks, they say.
Books available on UP Board’s website
Children are upset due to non-publication of books in the 2024-25 session. Many are managing with soft copies of the books available on the UP Board website www.upmsp.edu.in.
They have downloaded them free of charge to manage for the time being. Some have gone for the books printed last year that are still left in the market unsold.
Private publishers acting arbitrarily
Making the most of the situation, private publishers are acting arbitrarily and have brought out books as a substitute for prescribed textbooks, albeit at costs ranging for five to 30 times the books of authorised publishers.
For example, the price of two books of chemistry for class 12 is priced at ₹38. But by printing both the books together, private publishers are selling them in the market for ₹1,175.
Similarly, two books of physics which are available for ₹52 are being sold by private publishers for ₹1,060. However, teachers avoid recommending these books as not only are these not prescribed textbooks and comparatively very costly but often contain errors too.