Many PU colleges have complained about delay in receiving free textbooks promised by the State government for this academic year.

In the recent State budget 2026-27, former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah had announced to provide free textbooks for I and II PU students under the Vidya Vikas Scheme. Under the scheme, textbooks, shoes, socks and uniform are given for free for class 1 to 10 students. This year, the scheme has been extended to provide free textbooks to I and II PU students.

The scheme is expected to benefit 15 lakh students in Government and aided PU colleges.

However, it has been around 20 days since classes have begun and lecturers complained that they are yet to receive textbooks for all the subjects.

A female student from a PU college in Basavanagudi said, “My mother is a domestic worker and father works in automobile garage. I have opted for Science With textbooks being delayed, it has become a challenge to me to study. Currently, I am relying on the written notes provided by lecturers. The textbook prices are expensive and we cannot afford to pay."

A. H. Ningegowda, President, Karnataka State PU Lecturers Association, said, “Most of the students who get enrolled in our colleges are from lower middle class or their parents work as daily wage labourers . They cannot afford to purchase textbooks. After demanding the government to provide free textbooks for a long time, they finally promised to give textbooks for this academic year. However, there is no communication about when we will receive textbooks.

He added, ”The department has failed to cover even 25% of colleges to provide textbooks at the start of the academic year.”

Another lecturer from a college in Chikkaballapura, said, “Other subject teachers like Accounts, Statistics, History, Economics, Physics etc have started providing notes to students without textbooks. But it is difficult to manage without textbooks when we teach languages. We need to read lessons to the students and it can be done when they have textbooks in front of them.”

Further he added, “We will have a problem completing the syllabus before the Formative Assessment 1 (FA-1) exams begin. These exams are mostly held by the end of July and the beginning of August.”

Speaking to The Hindu, a senior official from Directorate of Pre-University Education, said the textbooks have been delayed due to administrative reasons. “Since this was the first time for us to provide free textbooks to PU students, it has been slightly delayed. A total indent of 28 lakh textbookshas been placed with the Karnataka Textbook Society (KTB) for books to be provided under the scheme. If more students are enrolled, then we will have extra copies left with us and there will be no shortage.Nearly three to four lakh textbooks have reached the colleges across the state. We are working on this on priority and we will ensure the textbooks are given to the students soon.”

Meanwhile, an official from KTB said, “We have a stock of textbooks left with us printed last year, but we need to see if there are any revisions made to the syllabus. The first phase of tender was completed and textbooks were printed. We will supply them to colleges soon. If necessary, another phase of tender will be called for printing textbooks.”