Life was simpler for my child-self. If you were smart and could afford it, you attended a school affiliated to the CBSE. If you were poor or dumb or both, you went to PSEB schools, which were of two kinds: Public and private (charter). Public schools were for the poorest of the poor and dumbest of the dumb. The private ones were a little better. The teachers worked and the students had to cram entire MBD study guides. The hierarchy was clear but, as it turns out to my older-self now, wrong.
However, I was not 30 then. To the 10- or 12-year-old me, all the good schools in Patiala were CBSE schools and only the children of the highly educated went to them. That too on a rickshaw or a school bus. A boy in my neighborhood studied in a CBSE school, notwithstanding the fact that his mother was a teacher in a public PSEB school. His cousins, also my neighbors, were also in a CBSE school. Only their tenants, who were poor, attended a PSEB school: some public and some (like me) private.
I was in a PSEB school, where the medium of instruction, except for mathematics, was Punjabi. I was aware that other students did not use the textbooks our class used. The little-me was curious to learn what books they used. Some of that curiosity is still lingering with me.
It is partly to satiate that curiosity and partly to collect language-learning materials—for what could be a better place to find authentic texts for reading in a foreign language than children’s textbooks—I have decided to create a directory of the world’s textbooks.
In the list that follows, you will find the websites (legal as far as I know) where you can read and download textbooks of different Indian states and several foreign nations.
You might want to check out the books if you are a student and curious to know how your classmates in other states and countries are studying.
NOTE. The list will keep expanding as I come across, or deliberately seek, new textbooks.
However, I was not 30 then. To the 10- or 12-year-old me, all the good schools in Patiala were CBSE schools and only the children of the highly educated went to them. That too on a rickshaw or a school bus. A boy in my neighborhood studied in a CBSE school, notwithstanding the fact that his mother was a teacher in a public PSEB school. His cousins, also my neighbors, were also in a CBSE school. Only their tenants, who were poor, attended a PSEB school: some public and some (like me) private.
I was in a PSEB school, where the medium of instruction, except for mathematics, was Punjabi. I was aware that other students did not use the textbooks our class used. The little-me was curious to learn what books they used. Some of that curiosity is still lingering with me.
It is partly to satiate that curiosity and partly to collect language-learning materials—for what could be a better place to find authentic texts for reading in a foreign language than children’s textbooks—I have decided to create a directory of the world’s textbooks.
In the list that follows, you will find the websites (legal as far as I know) where you can read and download textbooks of different Indian states and several foreign nations.
You might want to check out the books if you are a student and curious to know how your classmates in other states and countries are studying.
NOTE. The list will keep expanding as I come across, or deliberately seek, new textbooks.
Punjab
Language of Instruction: Punjabi and English
Source: Punjab School Education Board (Official website)
South India
Andhra Pradesh
Language of Instruction: Telugu, Urdu, Hindi, and English
Source: State Council of Educational Research and Training (Official website)Karnakta
Language of Instruction: Kannada, Hindi, and others
Source: Karnatka Textbook Society (Official website)
Kerala
Language of Instruction: Malyalam, English, Tamil, and Kannada
Source: Department of General Education (Official website)
Tamil Nadu
Language of Instruction: Tamil, Telugu, English, and others
Source: Department of School Education (Official website)
Telangana
Language of Instruction: Telugu, Urdu, English, Hindi, Kannada, Marathi, and Tamil
Source: State Council of Educational Research and Training (Official website)
The Caucasus
Azerbaijan
Language of Instruction: Azeri and Russian
Source: Azərbaycan Respublikası Təhsil Nazirliyi (Official website)
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