Now, parents can rely on old books, stationery

'Don't force students to buy books from private publishers'

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New Delhi: Feeling the heat of buying costly books and stationery for every new academic session from schools, parents are now open to making use of old books for their children and also offering their wards' second-hand books.

Recently, some parents had complained to Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia that various schools are compelling students to buy books from private publishers. "This is not only against the principals of education but also a violation of recent guidelines issued by CBSE," Sisodia, who also holds the education portfolio, had said. Education Minister Sisodia had recently also directed the Directorate of Education (DoE) to take necessary action against the "errant" schools for hiking fee and compelling students to buy books from private publishers.

In an initiative started by an education activist on his website, more and more parents are now approaching one another for old books rather than buying the "new set" from schools in order to deal with the problem. Sumit Vohra, who runs admissionsnursery.com, an online portal for parent community, has started a group on the website, asking parents to contact each other for books, workbooks, notebooks, and uniform.

"Most private schools insist parents to buy the complete sets which include glace papers, crayons, and other stationery, which sometimes is not required. Parents are reluctant to refuse most of the time and end up paying a huge amount," he said.

Vohra added that many schools allow private publishers to set their shops in school premises at the start of the new academic session. These publishers often charge more, he added. Sandeep Pal, whose child studies in class 2 in BGS International Public School in Dwarka, had approached interested parents in the group to give away the textbooks and worksheets for the class and in return had offered the books of his child from class 1 for those who need it.

"We have noticed that there are not many changes in the NCERT textbooks each year. There are also a lot of stationery along with the books set that we don't need. So we can actually make do with the old books. This is a great initiative," Pal said.

Another parent, Shubhrangsu Sinha, has offered to give his child's uniform and books in the group.

DH News Service