The Uttar Pradesh Council of Educational Research and Training has prepared school textbooks in local dialects such as Bhojpuri, Awadhi, Braj and Bundelkhandi, IANS reported on Thursday. Only the Hindi sections in the textbooks have been translated.

Primary Education Minister Satish Dwivedi released the books, called “Sahaj”, at a review meeting on Wednesday. They will be introduced by the end of this week as part of a pilot project for students in Classes 1 and 2 in Mathura, Gorakhpur, Lalitpur and Barabanki districts.

“The idea is to help students learn lessons in a language that is easy for them to understand,” said Ajay Singh, a joint director at Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. “We have got 15 books printed in each language. In each of the four districts, 10 schools have been identified where these will be introduced.”

In Uttar Pradesh, teachers from one region are often posted in another. As a result, they are unable to reach out to students, The Times of India reported. “To break the language barrier, we have transformed books from standard Hindi to local dialects,” said Singh, who led the project. “The content remains unchanged.”

The books also have a QR code to help teachers who do not know the local dialect. They can simply scan the code, allowing them to play an audio recording so that students can listen and understand their lessons.

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