NASHIK :
In a bid to reduce school-going childrens’ burden of textbooks, the Balbharati is implementing an integrated textbook pilot scheme on experimental basis for the students of class I to VII, for the academic year 2020-21.
Accordingly, the Balbharati, state’s textbook publishing bureau has supplied 1,69,925 books for Nashik Division. While remaining 29,000 textbooks will be received by the division soon. The distribution of integrated textbooks has commenced in the district from Tuesday. The work was however hampered in tehsils of Malegaon and Niphad.
From the coming academic year, students of Classes I-VII of government-run Marathi medium schools in 59 blocks across the state will have to carry only one textbook for all subjects. The initiative is part of efforts to lighten school bags. These integrated textbooks will make students “physically and mentally competent”, believes the state curriculum and publishing bureau Balbharati.
Under this pilot project, year-round syllabus of various subjects for each class has been merged into three books per semester. Accordingly, 21 books have been designed. This initiative is being implemented in the entire state to lighten the burden of students’ backpacks.
Meanwhile, at nine centres in Nashik Division, a total of 1,98,925 books will be distributed. These centres include municipal bodies of Nashik, Dhule, Malegaon, Jalgaon, Niphad, Malegaon, Shindkheda, Chopda and Navapur.
Heavy school bags, because of multiple textbooks, has been a concern for a long time. The heavy weight is also associated with several health hazards. Experts believe that one textbook for all subjects could help reduce school bag weight by 1 kg-2 kg, depending on the class.
The scheme does not require students to take all the collected books to school as before. For this, there will be only one textbook out of all the books. This scheme is for Marathi medium students only and for this, textbooks have been made available at Balbharati stores.
Integrated textbook plan for class I to VII
Textbooks for students from grade I to VII have been integrated and made available in three parts. For class I and II, four books of Balbharati, My English Book, Maths and ‘Khelu, Karu, Shiku’ have been integrated into a single textbook.
For class III, books of Balbharati, My English Book, mathematics and environmental studies and for class IV, textbooks of Balbharati, My English Book, Mathematics and environmental studies have been merged into a single book respectively.
While for class V, books Balbharati, My English Book, Mathematics, environmental studies and Hindi sulabh bharati have been integrated as one textbook. For the sixth and seventh standards, subjects Balbharati, My English Book, Mathematics, History, Geography, General Science, Hindi sulabh bharati have been merged into an integrated single to textbook.
