BSEM fixes April 18 deadline
Firms warned to deliver or face the music
Source: The Sangai Express

Imphal, April 01 2011: Assuring that prescribed text books for class 1 to X published under the Board of Secondary Education, Manipur would be made available to the students by April 18, Board Secretary Lairenlakpam Rajmohan has announced that the contracts signed with the publishing firms would be terminated if they fail to submit the printed text books before the said deadline.

Addressing a press conference in this connection at his office room today, Rajmohan assured that the prescribed text books for class 1 to X would be made available in all the book stores by April 18.In case, the private publishing firms, with whom the contracts have been signed for printing the text books, fail to submit the printed works within April 18, the Board would invalidate the contracts.

Rajmohan further informed that a joint meeting of the Board and the representatives of the private printing firms engaged for printing the prescribed text books was held today morning and it has been agreed that the printed text books would be submitted to the Board by April 18 definitely.

Rajmohan explained that the Board had kept the target of ensuring availability of text books to the students before the commencement of the academic session on April 1 .

But the target could not be achieved mainly on account of the fact that the functioning of the Board remained crippled for around one month.

Moreover, there was the problem over change of syllabus and rewriting some of the text books, he said, adding that one month's time have been given to the private publishing firms for printing the prescribed text books respectively assigned to them.

Reacting to some news reports, the Board Secretary clarified that the total number of text books prescribed and published under the Board for class 1 to VIII is 106 .

These text books, wether it be in English, Manipur or Hindi, have been published in compliance with the new curriculum under National Curriculum Framework, 2005, which is applicable all over the India.

With the exception of text books on Mathematics, Science and Social Sciences, which would be revised in 2012, the rest of the prescribed text books have been revised this year.

Accordingly, 51 text books are of new syllabus and 55 others are of old syllabus.

Of the 51 text books under new syllabus, the Board has so far received printed copies of 13 text books and the same distributed among the book stores.

With regard to reported seizure of prescribed text books of class IX published under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan being sold in the book stores without the hologram of the Board, Rajmohan admitted that the hologram have not been pasted at the time of distributing the text books for sale among the book stores.

As the book stores are known, the distributed text books would be collected and the hologram would be pasted, the Board Secretary assured.

Comment