Bengaluru: The initiative of distributing free notebooks for the govt school students from the 2026-27 academic year, announced by chief minister Siddaramaiah at a state-level Teachers’ Day celebration last year, is “under review,” according to minister for school education and literacy Madhu Bangarappa.The CM had announced that notebooks will be distributed free of cost along with textbooks. Later, the same announcement was made by the state’s school education minister at various public events.However, with no mention of the freebie in the state budget or in the call for intent for books for the next academic year, where schools had to give the number of books required, it was evident that free notebooks would unlikely be distributed. TOI had reported earlier that the announcement was unlikely to be implemented.Now, minister Bangarappa has made it official. Replying to a question in the Legislative Council during the ongoing session, he said the policy is “under review.” When asked whether the announcement was on hold because the finance department had rejected the proposal, the minister said the proposal is being examined at the govt level.As per the Sept 2025 announcement, all students in 46,000 govt schools and 7,000 aided schools were to get free notebooks along with textbooks from the 2026-27 academic year.Meanwhile, books for remedial classes – the Marusinchana programme – will be distributed only among students who have not achieved the expected learning levels. Marusinchana was initiated in 2023 to help students catch up on the age-appropriate learning levels. While initially all students were given the worksheets, it was later restricted to only a few students. The programme is being conducted for classes 6-10.
