Around one crore unsold NCERT textbooks will become obsolete as texts are being modified or updated for the upcoming academic year. While the news of NCERT text being updated is nothing new, but what’s shocking is the huge inventory of unsold books.
A senior official of National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) said, “A rough estimate suggests that Rs 25-30 crore worth of books will become obsolete in the new academic session 2018-19”. However, the ongoing update procedure is a bigger exercise. This has been a major update in NCERT books in the last seven years involving all the texts.
In 2013, it was decided that collections in the books will be modified annually. NCERT commissioned a print run for almost 4.6 crore textbooks last year. It was decided that the council, would keep a cushion to avoid scarcity of books, while ordering new editions.
TOI emailed a detailed questionnaire to the NCERT director regarding the criteria based on which the print run is decided and the cushion usually kept each year. However, no response was received from the side of NCERT council.
The final report regarding the count will be known only after the council receives data of unsold books sent to various locations and dealers. The council was even asked about the destiny of those unsold books of 2017-18 reprint academic session.
The new books are likely to be available by March-end or the first week of April 2018.
