The Karnataka Textbook Society has begun to upload textbooks online with the hope of one day reducing the weight of school bags for children in Karnataka, but that future’s is probably going to take a long time.

Already, the KTS has uploaded SSLC textbooks in Kannada, English and Urdu. Textbooks of Classes 1-9 will be ready by June, in time for the next academic year. The idea is that could be beneficial for tech-savvy students whose schools have access to computers and internet facilities.

Nagendra Kumar, the managing director of KTS, said that the textbooks were to be made available through two websites, Kannada Sahitya Parishat and Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysuru.

“We’re are futuristic in our approach. Internet access and computers are rapidly being used in schools and the numbers are increasing. Right now, even one computer would be enough to give access to the textbooks,” he said.

However, date from the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’s District Information System of Education shows only 28.83 percent of schools have access to computers and internet.

Asked about this, Kumar said: “These textbooks are not just meant for the students, anyone can access it. This would be of a huge help for researchers across the country,” he added.

He also said that the textbooks are downloadable and hence the necessity of internet access was minimal once downloaded. It can be shared easily as the format used is PDF. The option to download the textbook from any gadget would also negate the need for a hard copy.

Getting access to online textbooks is a simple process. A student should log on to the website, select his/her class, the name of the subject and the medium of instruction required. Once this is submitted, the student can gain access to the online textbook in a PDF format and can be downloaded for free.

This model of online textbooks has been taken up earlier in states like Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.