Taking a stern note of some schools not caring to even reply to the order of the State Education Department on the fulfilment of Uttarakhand High Court (HC) directive on National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) books, the Director General (DG) school education Captain Alok Shekhar Tiwari has issued notices to such schools.

Tiwari said that the department had sent show- cause notices to 181 schools while acting on the HC order and the State Government order on the mandatory implementation of NCERT books. He said that explanations of 133 schools have been received by the department while notices to 15 more schools are being again sent by the offices of the Chief Education Officers (CEO) as their mailing addresses were wrong. He said that remaining 33 schools have not submitted any reply to the notice. The DG, further, said that the department is now convinced that these schools are not inclined to put forward their explanation. “This is why a warning is being issued to them in which it would be clearly mentioned that they would be responsible for the consequences of their nonchalance,” he added.

Mention worthy, Uttarakhand HC, in an order dated April 13 this year, had said that all the schools affiliated by CBSE and Uttarakhand board should implement NCERT books. The court had ,further, stated in the order that the schools can recommend reference books while ensuring that they cannot be foisted on the students and their quality and price should be compatible with those of NCERT books.

On the order of HC, the Education Department had conducted an inquiry in the districts of Dehradun, Haridwar, Udham Singh Nagar and Nainital. On the basis of the findings of the inquiry, the department on September 18 had issued notices to 181 schools in these districts. In the notice, the department had warned such schools of the cancellation of their no-objection certificate (NOC) issued to them.