School education department commences sale and distribution of new class I-III books

Chennai: Tamil Nadu Textbook and Educational Services Corporation (TNTESC) commenced the sale of the newly launched textbooks for classes I-III at all 22 regional godowns across the state and amped up the free distribution to its govt schools on Monday.

All term one books for these classes are now at the godowns. The distribution has already commenced to govt and aided schools, a TNTESC official said, adding private schools can book the purchase online and submit a delivery challan to the respective regional godown for purchase.

This year, the school education department printed 3.72crore books for classes IV-XII -- all of which have been sent to govt, aided and private matric schools in the state. For classes I-III -- which have been developed in line with the state education policy -- the printing of 38.65lakh books were completed last week and distribution only picked up pace last week.

Data shared by the TNTESC revealed that as of May 23, 10.9lakh out of 12.8lakh books for class I; 8.9lakh out of 12.79lakh books for class II; and 10.44lakh out of 13.01lakh for class III books have been distributed to schools. In total, 79% of the books have been distributed.

“The distribution will be completed this week, irrespective of whether school reopening gets postponed. For high and higher secondary students, all textbooks (including term one, two and three) have been distributed. For lower classes, term one books are delivered first. All students will get their books on day one of school,” school education director S Kannappan said.