Balbharati books now available online

In a move that could address the problem of students not getting textbooks even after schools start, Balbharati has put up soft copies of all its textbooks on its website, from where they can be easily downloaded.

M R Kadam, director of Balbharati, said initially, books in Portable Document Format (PDF) for Std I to Std III were uploaded on an experimental basis on www.balbharati.in. With the response being positive, books from Std I to Std VIII are now available for download, he said.

Students and parents have often complained that they were not getting books even months after the schools srarted.

"When there are changes in the syllabus, printing of books takes time. In the past, this has resulted in long delay in distribution of new textbooks. The students in rural areas are affected the most," said a Balbharati official.

According to the official, parents start demanding textbooks a few weeks before the schools actually begin in June so that the students can go through them in advance. "The ebooks will also be helpful for people who are in other states or outside the country, but are interested in learning Marathi. Even foreign academicians can refer to these books for research," said Kadam.

The books are available in eight languges — Marathi, English, Hindi, Urdu, Kannada, Telugu, Sindhi and Gujarati. Besides, 35 books titled My District for Std III Geography for each district in the state are available on the website.

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