JKBOSE’s financial liability on account of providing free text books touches Rs 160 cr

JAMMU, : The financial liability of the Jammu and Kashmir Board of School Education (JKBOSE) on account of providing free  text books to the students of the Government schools from Class 3rd to Class 8th has soared to Rs 160 crore. Moreover, there is no budgetary support from the Government for providing free text books of the additional language subjects.

Official sources told  that for students from Class 3rd to 5th, the JKBOSE is receiving Rs 250 per book set under the Samagra Shiksha Scheme. However, the actual cost of printing a single book set ranges between Rs 400 to Rs 500.
The situation is even more precarious for Classes 6th to 8th where the printing cost of a single book set ranges between Rs 800 to Rs 950. However, the JKBOSE is receiving only Rs 400 per set under the same scheme-less than half the actual expenditure.
Stating that this gap is placing an unsustainable financial burden on the Board, which doesn’t receive any budgetary support from the Government, sources disclosed that over the period of time the financial liability of the JKBOSE on account of providing free text books to the students from 3rd Class to 8th Class has swollen to Rs 160 crore.

“Whatever revenue the JKBOSE is generating through different services like examination fee, affiliation fee or through selling of forms is utilized to provide salaries to its employees and meet other expenditure. In the absence of any viable financial backup, the Board is not in a position to clear the liability, which is increasing with every passing year”, sources said.
Last year, the Finance Committee of the Board discussed the issue of increasing liability on account of providing free text books and accordingly it was decided to approach the Finance Department of the Government through School Education Department, which exercises administrative control over JKBOSE, sources informed.
Following this decision, the Board authorities sent numerous communications seeking release of Rs 160 crore to clear the liability. However, the requests have not been taken seriously till date, sources revealed. “This inaction is disappointing because the Finance Committee meeting was attended by several senior officers of the Government making the situation and the urgency crystal clear”, they added.
“The funds for free-text books under Samagra Shiksha have not been increased despite the fact that printing cost of the books has increased enormously during the past some years”, sources further said and stressed that Government should take seriously the requests made by the Board for release of Rs 160 crore so that liability is cleared without any further delay.
They further said, “there is dire need to ensure a sustainable annual budget for textbook distribution. The matter must be taken seriously before the situation worsens further. Timely release of funds is crucial to avoid disruption in the availability of free textbooks to lakhs of students”.

Further, the JKBOSE doesn’t have resources to provide free text books of the additional languages—Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi, Pahari and Gojri. However, the Board is ensuring smooth availability of these books through market as National Education Policy (NEP) lays emphasis on multilingual learning and mother tongue instruction.
When contacted, an officer of JKBOSE, on the condition of anonymity, admitted that liability on account of providing free text books has swollen to Rs 160 crore. “We don’t have resources to clear the same as such Government was approached”, he added.
In reply to a question, the officer said, “at present, the JKBOSE is having less than 500 employees as against 1000 sanctioned posts. If we have full manpower, it would be difficult for us even to meet the salary and other expenditure”.
The Board has also contested the statements from different quarters about delayed distribution of  textbooks and said, “we ensured timely distribution of textbooks to the schools through CEOs and ZEOs in both the divisions well ahead of start of academic session”. The officer added: “The distribution of  textbooks was started on 8th March and 90% distribution was completed by mid April. In addition, the educational institutions have retrieval system of previous textbooks in place, making availability of 10 to 15% of textbooks for the new students through this mechanism”.