![\"NCERT](\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131480864,imgsize-86512,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/ncert-books-shortage.jpg\" "\\"Class")
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\nBENGALURU: Schools have reopened, but several CBSE schools in the city are reeling under shortage of NCERT (National Council of Educational Research and Training) textbooks, thus affecting their academic schedules. While schools say there is a shortage of books for classes 6-9, the worst hit is class 9, where a completely new syllabus has been rolled out. While the online PDFs are available on the website, schools say that do not suffice. \u201cTeachers find it hard in language classes, when students don\u2019t have text books. Group work and homework assignments get messy. Teachers spend more time in dictating content, scanning pages, and arranging PDFs etc. Many hours are lost from actual teaching. Subjects like Science and Social Science suffer because activities depend on in-text diagrams and maps.Schools are depending on NCERT e-books available on ncert.nic.in and the DIKSHA app. Keeping one set in libraries per 15 students as reference copies is a temporary solution,\u201d said Veda Prashanth, principal, Hill Rock National Public School. While most schools use NCERT based books till class 6, the practice is to resort to NCERT for the higher grades. \u201cThe distributors tell us that they don\u2019t have the required copies we need and they send us in batches as and when they get it. They don\u2019t have a idea as to when will the textbook be available for Social Science for grade 9,\u201d said principal of a leading chain of schools. \u201cIt is a huge issue. We are not able to make bulk orders. We have uploaded soft copy on our internal platform and have told students to use it,\u201d said another principal. Parents are equally irked. \u201cWe are taking print outs after print outs every day. What a waste of resources is this? Isn\u2019t it common knowledge for NCERT that books should be made available by the time schools reopen. And grade 9 is not a small grade where we can help them with some private publishers books,\u201d said Nirmal R, a parent. \u201cAs NCERT is the base for boards and other competitive exams, the worry is even more,\u201d said Veda. P D Anjanappa of Sree Dhanalakshmi Book Centre on Avenue Road says he gets panicked customers daily enquiring for NCERT books. \u201cWe have no stocks. This year, no books have come. All the old ones are sold out. We see parents and students panicking, as they hop from one shop to another,\u201d he said.Sandeep Pai S, chairman of Bangalore Sahodaya, said it has hit the learning process. \u201cThere is basically a difference in the academic calendar between schools in North and South India. While North Indian schools need the textbooks only by July, that is not the case for schools here. We have to finish our class 9 exam soon so that we are get them prepared for class 10. Class 10 is a continuation of class 9. How can we prepare students for the next class too and launch programmes for toppers,\u201d he said.\u201cThere was a similar issue in the previous years when they changed the textbooks of other grades. NCERT should have seen this coming,\u201d he said.<\/div>\n