Odisha Schools Face Severe Textbook Crisis Amid Early Summer Vacation

25 Apr 2026, 09:47 by Vinay Kakkad · KalingaTV

The Odisha government decided to start summer vacation early, on April 25, because of an intense heatwave. But now students across the state face another big problem—a serious shortage of textbooks. Even though the new academic session started 20 days ago, the School and Mass Education Department has yet to fulfill its commitment to deliver all books before the break. Parents and teachers are getting really anxious. They’re worried students won’t be able to learn at home or finish summer assignments without their actual textbooks.

While officials recently suggested that teaching would continue remotely via WhatsApp during the break, educators argue that without physical textbooks, effective learning remains extremely difficult for the children.

The crisis is rooted in a massive production delay; while the state revised the curriculum for Classes 1 to 8 this year, the total required print run of 2.74 crore books has not yet been completed. Teachers have already gone through a five-day training program for the new syllabus, but now they’re left scrambling, trying to manage with only some books delivered.

The shortage hits home-based Odia-medium schools the hardest. Lots of them say they haven’t received any books at all. Since government rules require students to use official state textbooks, trying to find alternatives is almost impossible during the long break. With schools closing for summer, there’s this huge gap between the academic calendar and when books are handed out. That’s left thousands of kids without the basic things they need to keep learning.