SHILLONG: St. Margaret’s Higher Secondary School, one of Shillong’s premier schools, has landed in a spot of bother after selling an expensive Class IX textbook to the students which was not prescribed by MBOSE.
The Environmental Education textbook for Class IX prescribed by MBOSE is priced at Rs.70 while the textbook sold by the School was priced at Rs.225.
The matter was raised by the youth wing of the Khun Hynniewtrep National Awakening Movement (KHNAM) during their meeting with the Academic Officer of MBOSE here on Friday.
KHNAM wanted the MBOSE official to find out why the School had prescribed the textbook costing Rs.225 for its students despite the contents of both books being the same.
KHNAM also asked the MBOSE to direct the school authority concerned to comply with the Board’s prescribed textbooks and refund the extra money to the students.
S. Kharjana, general secretary of KHNAM youth wing stated that MBOSE must come out with proper guidelines with regards to sale of textbooks by the schools in the State.
He claimed that schools were taking advantage of the absence of rules and regulations on the matter and selling textbooks at a higher rate to their students.
“When we took up the matter with the Principal of St. Margaret’s we were told that she was not aware of the matter,” Kharjana claimed.
Meanwhile, Sr. Marina Thomas, Principal of St. Margaret’s Higher Secondary School, termed the incident as accidental.
She explained that the supplier concerned had made a mistake while supplying the book on Environmental Education.
All the students have been asked to return the concerned book, she added.
