Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala General Education Minister V Sivankutty on Thursday said preparations for the 2026–27 academic year had been completed well in advance, even before schools close for the current year, with 68 lakh textbooks already printed.

In a social media post, the minister said that around 3.5 crore textbooks will be printed for the first volume of the upcoming academic year, of which 68 lakh copies are ready.

In a statement, Sivankutty said the indenting process for textbooks for the 2026–27 academic year was completed in the first week of December 2025, and printing orders were issued to the Kerala Books and Publications Society (KBPS) by the last week of the same month.

He added that administrative approval for ₹111 crore to procure paper for printing the textbooks was granted in September last year.

Apart from ensuring the distribution of textbooks before schools close for the current academic year, the government is also making arrangements to distribute free handloom uniforms to over eight lakh students, the minister said.

The state-level distribution of textbooks and uniforms will be inaugurated on February 13 by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan at St Mary’s School, he said.

Sivankutty also noted that the schedule for the Secondary School Leaving Certificate (SSLC), Technical High School Leaving Certificate (THSLC) and Art High School Leaving Certificate (AHSLC) examinations has already been finalised, with public examinations set to begin on March 5.

Referring to concerns raised over this year’s examinations being based on new textbooks, the minister said there were deliberate attempts by some quarters to create apprehension among students, calling such claims “completely baseless”.

He said model question papers were published on the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) website at the beginning of the academic year and that the new question patterns were introduced to students during the Onam and Christmas examinations.

Special programmes have also been launched through the KITE Victers channel to familiarise students with the new question papers, he added.

PTI