Hyderabad faces shortage of textbooks

Hyderabad: The Hyderabad additional deputy commissioner II has drawn the attention of authorities towards the shortage of textbooks for the academic year 2024-25.

In a letter, the Hyderabad additional deputy commissioner II asked the P&D deputy director to inform the relevant institutions that around 50 per cent less than the required number of textbooks had been provided in Hyderabad district for the academic year 2024-25.

Separate figures were given in the letter about the shortage of books at the talukas level.

The Hyderabad district requires a total of 230,094 sets of books, of which 123,360 sets of books have been provided. However, there is still a shortage of sets of 106,734 books

According to the letter, 65,624 sets are required for the schools of the Taluka City, of which the Sindh Textbook Board has provided 32,814 sets and there is still a shortage of 32,810 sets.

The Latifabad taluka has got 39,557 sets out of the required 77,994 sets and a shortage of 38,437 sets persists.

The schools of Hyderabad rural tehsil required 65,248 sets of textbooks, of which 40,330 sets have been provided resulting in a shortage of 24,918 sets.

In Qasimabad taluka, 21,228 sets were required of which 10,659 sets have been provided and 10,559 sets are still required. Meanwhile, Hyderabad Deputy Commissioner Zainul Aabdin Memon and School Education Department Monitoring and Evaluation Director General Zainul Aabdin Ansari called an emergency meeting of the District Oversight Committee in the Camp Office on Sunday.

During the meeting, the director general highlighted the critical issues detected during an early morning surprise visit to local schools where several employees and teachers were found absent without prior notice.

In some schools, the teacher deployment was higher than the actual student enrolment, indicating mismanagement and misallocation of teaching staff.

It was said in the meeting that the performances of taluka education officers (TEOs), district education officers (DEOs) and chief monitoring officer (CMO) were not satisfactory. They were told to improve their performance.

The deputy commissioner and director general emphasised the importance of accountability and regular monitoring to prevent such problems in the future.