School Vikas Sankul now nodal agency for school textbook distribution

Ahmedabad: Text books which are given free to students of government and grant-in-aid schools will now be distributed by the School Vikas Sankul (SVS). This decision was taken by the state government to avoid malpractices and ensure that the text book reach students.
The state textbook board had received a number of complaints from schools this year about non-receipt of books.The problem was acute for students of class IX and XI, who did not get their books even after the academic year had started. An official of the state education department said, "We are keeping a watch on the distribution of textbooks as malpractices had been reported by a number of schools earlier."
The government has formed SVS for effective function and monitoring of schools. Each SVS unit will supervise 40 schools. According to the an official of the state education department, text books were earlier sent to the district education officers from where they were sent to the schools directly. Now the books will be sent to the school through SVS. School authorities will have to sent their requirement for books online to the SVS, and a copy of this will also be sent to the DEOs.
"The SVS will not send any book to the schools without online request. The officials said that the government had earlier decided that the district education officers (DEOs) and district primary education officers (DPEOs) will have to submit certificates to the government confirming the number of textbooks sent to each school along with names of students who got the books," said a state education department official.