Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala government's plan to introduce a new Malayalam script and writing style for all school textbooks from the upcoming academic year has hit a major roadblock. The education sub-committee has assessed that it's not feasible to print school textbooks in the five computer fonts prepared, due to practical and technical difficulties.

The fonts - Mandaram, Thumpa, Meera, Rahna and Manjula - are not suitable due to their conflicting letter structures. They lack uniformity while writing double characters and joint characters.

The sub-committee has raised concerns that the inconsistent letter structure will hinder students' language learning.

To address this issue, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) has decided to design a new font. As a result, only first standard books will be printed using the revised script, which will be delivered to schools early May.