LUCKNOW, March 17 -- In a significant relief for students and educators, the UP Board has announced that new textbooks for the upcoming 2026-27 academic session are already available in the market. This early rollout effectively ends the supply-demand gaps that earlier delayed book distribution by up to three months. The board of secondary education, UP, has authorised three publishers to print and distribute 70 different NCERT-based textbooks in Hindi medium, covering 36 subjects for Classes 9 through 12. "After many years, it is happening that news books for UP Board are available in the market much before the start of the new session," said Bhagwati Singh, UP Board secretary. These books have been made available across all the government, aided and unaided recognized schools in the state. The publishers claimed that all these textbooks are intended for students at the High School level (Classes 9 and 10) - specifically in English, Science, Mathematics and Social Science - and at the Intermediate level (Classes 11 & 12) - specifically in English, Physics, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics, History, Geography, Civics, Sociology, Economics, Business Studies, Accountancy, Psychology and Home Science. Similarly, 12 textbooks developed by the Board itself for subjects of Hindi, Sanskrit and Urdu for Classes 9 to 12 have also been introduced at affordable rates for students. Class 9 students can buy all 10 prescribed textbooks at Rs 395 while Class 10 textbooks will cost Rs 440. Class 11 textbooks are available for Rs 458 and Class 12 books at Rs 412. "Textbooks published by the NCERT are developed by a committee of experts. This committee comprises prominent educationists from across the country who curate the course content with a focus on the holistic development of students. Questions asked in most competitive examinations are based on NCERT textbooks," said Ruchir Bansal, one of the three authorised publishers. The three authorised printers are making textbooks available for sale to students through wholesale/retail book sellers in all districts of UP as per the Board's timeline. "It is a well-known fact that most children studying in schools affiliated to UP Board come from middle- and lower-income families. Therefore, it becomes even more important that the books published for them be of high quality and reasonably priced, so as not to burden these families. Currently, books printed by authorised printers are one-third the price of books from private publishers," said Abhinav Agarwal, one of the three publishers, who bagged the tender for Class 11 books....