Shortage of Textbooks Hits Uri Schools, Parents Aghast

Zaffer Iqbal

Uri, May 6 (GNS): Most of the students enrolled across various schools in Uri in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district are suffering for the want of text-books for over a month now, which has expectedly affected the education scenario in the frontier town.

A delegation of parents told GNS that despite the fact that the classes have started well before a month, still most of the students have not been provided with the textbooks by the respective schools.

A parent, part of delegation, told his son is reading in class 5th but EVS, Mathematics and Kashmiri books have not been provided to him as of now.

Another parent with a somewhat similar claim said his ward, reading in Class 2, is yet to receive his Urdu book.

Expressing their resentment, the delegation said the lackadaisical approach by the schools in the area have reduced free education to merely a joke.

“If this remains the situation, how well will our wards learn?”, another delegation member said.

“We appeal Director School Education Kashmir to take necessary action and provide complete books to their children as soon as possible so that the education of their wards is not affected anymore”, they said.

When contacted, a School Education Department official admitted they have lack of availability of several books. “We have taken up the matter with higher-ups and hope that all the books required are made available at an earliest”, the official told GNS. (GNS)