Lambs to the slaughter in Education Dept. mess

Delays in the printing of school text books have resulted in a shortage of books in many schools all over the country. The two printing companies who had undertaken the contract to print a bulk of texts, failed to deliver the material in time. This has resulted in a shortage.

Schools are also facing a shortage of Teachers’ Instruction Manuals. Students affected by this shortage of material are those students in grade 7 and students from grade 11 who will be sitting for the GCE ‘O’ level examination later this year!

Text books in all three medium are in short supply. A report on an audit query conducted by the Auditors General’s Department states that adequate copies of Teachers’ Instruction Manuals for a number of subjects have not been printed. This included subjects in grade 11 (GCE ‘O’ level) as well.

The Convenor of the Inter University Student Union Mr. Udul Premaratne said that many of the Tamil Medium Teachers’ Instruction Manuals are still in print. “We have learnt that many of the schools are facing a severe shortage of text books, as well as of Tamil medium Teachers’ Instruction Manuals”, he said.

The Commissioner General of Educational Publications, W.M.N.J. Pushpakumara admitted that there was a shortage of text books. According to him however, the shortage existed in only four out of eight subjects needed for Sinhala medium GCE ‘O’ level exam while there was also a shortage of Tamil medium text books for grade 7.

Explaining the reason behind the shortage of necessary texts, he said the delay was a result of two printers who been contracted to print the texts being unable to deliver the finished product on time.

According to Mr. Pushpakumara many of the contracts had been awarded to the two particular printers who had tendered lowest rates. The work load had proved to be beyond their capacity and thus they had failed to deliver, he said. To meet this problem Pushpakumara explained, the order had been recalled and redistributed among thirteen printers to speed up the process of printing and distribution.

The Additional Director General of National Institute of Education (NIE) H. M. Guneratne Banda meanwhile denied any shortage in Teachers’ Instruction Manuals. According to him all Teachers Instruction Manuals had been printed and distributed to schools.

However inquiries made by The Sunday Times revealed that many schools in Colombo too had not received some of the Teachers’ Instruction Manuals.

“Even after six months, we have not received some text books and Teachers’ Instruction Manuals. We have been compelled to download syllabi from the internet website and give them to the teachers” said the Principal of a school who declined to be named.

Pushpakumara explained that as a temporary solution, some text books and work books have been up loaded to the department of education website. He however admitted that accessing the website may prove difficult to schools in rural areas.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, another school principal said they were able to access the internet or get the CDs from the NIE to obtain the syllabi and Teachers’ Instruction Manuals as their schools were situated in Colombo. He stressed schools in the outstations and those without internet facilities were facing great difficulties.