Hey students! Load your bags with textbooks on time, this year

Hyderabad: For the upcoming academic year, there will be no delays in textbook distribution. The Government Textbook Press, part of Telangana’s School Education Department, has already dispatched 35 per cent of the free component textbooks to district points.

Additionally, from this academic year onwards, the paper thickness of the textbooks has been reduced from 90 grams per square metre (GSM) to 70 GSM.

Srinivasa Chary, joint director in-charge of textbooks for Telangana, said, “For the past two academic years, students have faced significant difficulties due to the non-availability of textbooks. However, this year we have printed textbooks in advance and have already dispatched 35 per cent of the total free component textbooks to the districts. The first phase of textbooks will be provided to students well before the commencement of the new academic year, and the second phase will be distributed in the last week of June or July.”

“Over the past two years, with the introduction of English-medium instruction, bilingual textbooks have been printed for classes I to VIII, and class IX was added last year. This year, class X has been included as well. As the number of pages increases due to bilingual content, textbooks are being distributed in two phases: summative I and summative II,” he added.

A total of 1.85 crore free component textbooks are required for approximately 28,77,675 students of government-run institutions for the academic year 2024–25.

Out of these, 1.45 lakh textbooks will reach district points from Hyderabad by the end of this month and will then be dispatched to the mandals and schools. For private schools, textbooks will be available in the market starting from May 30.

Emphasising the reduction in paper thickness, he said that, as directed by the School Education Department, the thickness of the paper has been reduced from 90 to 70 GSM. Similarly, the cover page thickness has been decreased from 250 to 200 GSM. For example, Class I English medium textbooks will now weigh 1.408 kg, which is 583 grams lighter than before, and Class X English medium textbooks have been reduced by 1.183 kg. This change will significantly reduce the weight of students’ bags. He assured that the reduction in paper thickness would not affect the content of the textbooks.