4 months into session,Urdu medium students await textbooks

“I am extremely sorry to inform you that despite the commencement of the academic session of schools in Delhi,all Urdu medium students have been deprived of getting the required textbooks,” Professor Akhtarul Wasey,the vice-chairman of the Delhi Urdu Academy,stated in the letter.

Wasey also requested that a competent authority at National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT),the agency responsible for textbook distribution,be directed to provide Urdu textbooks immediately.

However,NCERT has denied any delay in printing,publishing or distributing of books for Urdu medium schools. It claimed that were always made available to students in time. “There is no delay from our side and we make sure that books are sent to schools in time,” NCERT spokesperson Hemant Kumar said.

While stating that the quality of books — including those of paper and printing — has improved,the letter stated that the more serious issue was why textbooks in Urdu could not be dispatched to distributors in time.

Wasey,who is also a member of the National Monitoring Committee on Minorities Education said every year,the books reach as late as September while the session starts in April.

“When NCERT knows that the session starts on April 1,why can’t the books be made available in March?” he said.

According to Wasey,NCERT earlier attributed the delay to non-availability of distributors for Urdu textbooks. “Since 1990,the Urdu Academy itself has has taken up the responsibility of distribution of Urdu books across the country. Even then,there is a delay,” Wasey said.

He said the number of books cannot be an excuse as only about a few thousand copies in Urdu are printed as opposed to the lakhs of textbooks printed in English and Hindi.

Currently,there are 84 primary and 22 senior secondary Urdu medium schools in Delhi.