Make maximum use of new textbooks, CM tells students

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan emphasizes the importance of utilizing new textbooks during the upcoming academic year at a distribution event.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has urged students to make maximum use of the textbooks for the next academic year that will reach their hands before school reopening in June.

He was speaking after inaugurating the State-level distribution of textbooks and handloom uniforms for the next academic year here on Friday.

The Chief Minister said school summer vacations tended to be long. Besides play, all children should keep aside a fixed time to go through the textbooks that would be used in the next academic year.

He reminded students that though textbooks were available to them before the start of a new academic year, that was not always the case. Before the first Pinarayi Vijayan-led Left Democratic Front government came to power, textbooks were not available on time. Students kept waiting for textbooks months after school reopening in June. Some teachers took photostat copies of the lessons and distributed them among students. The then Education department officials were responsible for not placing print orders in time and neglecting the importance of school education.

This, in turn, led to nearly five lakh students shifting from public schools and nearly 1,000 schools were facing the threat of closure owing to being ‘uneconomic.’ If such a situation had continued, the public education sector would have been destroyed.

The LDF government brought in huge changes. It spent ₹5,000 crore for giving a facelift to schools in the State. High-tech schools with smart classrooms here could compete with schools anywhere in the world, he pointed out.