The state government on Saturday released revised textbooks for Intermediate first year science subjects (MPC and BiPC groups) which will be applicable from the ensuing academic year of 2012-13. Costing more than double the price of the old textbooks, the new ones will help students prepare for the national-level common entrance tests for Engineering and Medical admissions like Iseet and Neet, proposed to be implemented by the Centre from the 2013-14 academic year.
Defending their high price, deputy chief minister Damodar Raja Narasimha, while releasing the textbooks at the Secretariat, said this was so as the books had been printed in colour for the first time to provide better quality. The new textbooks printed by the Telugu Akademi are priced at Rs 1,350 and Rs 1,100 per set for MPC and BiPC respectively. They were earlier priced at Rs 500 and Rs 550.
“The revised syllabus will come into effect with the fresh batch of Inter students who will take admissions in the First Year of the course this year. The syllabus for the Second Year will also be revised next year and new textbooks will be suppplied to these students,” said Mr Raja Narasimha.
Call for subsidy on textbook prices
New textbooks for English medium students will be available in the market from June 1. However, Telugu medium students will have to wait till June 15 to purchase new textbooks due to pending translation works. Officials said that they have printed two lakh textbooks for English medium students and a further one lakh will be printed for Telugu medium students.
Students have also been advised to purchase and follow textbooks printed only by the Telugu Akademi. This year, a large number of Intermediate students had failed in physics after following textbooks printed by some corporate colleges. Students and parents, especially from the economically weaker sections, however, have not taken the doubling of prices for the textbooks lightly. They demanded that the government subsidise the books for these sections pointing out that it had been providing free textbooks to all government school students from Classes I to X.