INDORE: Hundreds of textbooks spread out on the front yard to dry, with children picking them up and shuffling through the pages every now and then to check for dryness.These are the striking visuals purportedly from outside a govt primary school at Surajpura in Madhya Pradesh’s Dhar district that has yet again put public education in the state’s interiors in an unflattering light.Rainwater trickled down the school’s rusted and leaky tin roof, settling in the kitchen where the textbooks were stored.Alerted to the viral clip, exposing the pitiable state of the school that has about 50 students studying in classes I-V, a visiting inspection team found the books soaked wet under the leaking roof.As the visuals evoked outrage, the district education department on Wednesday issued a show-cause notice to the school authorities, while also ordering an inquiry into its rickety, skeletal state.Speaking to TOI, the district project coordinator of the education department, Abhishek Yadav, said the block resource coordinator (BRC) has been asked to investigate the matter and submit a detailed report.“I came across the video and, after taking note of the matter, issued a show-cause notice to the school. We have also asked the BRC to conduct an inquiry and submit a detailed report,” Yadav told TOI.The inquiry conducted by the Tirla block BRC, Mukesh Saxena, on Wednesday found that the books seen set out to dry under the sun in the video were old textbooks collected from students who had passed their respective classes.The books had been kept in the kitchen room before rainwater seeped through the leaking roof during showers last month, leaving them drenching wet.Saxena said the books were set out to dry as the weather cleared and the sun came out. However, he clarified that the damaged books weren’t the ones being used currently by the students.The visuals showing the students at the site where the books were spread out to dry prompted further inquiry, during which the school in-charge and teachers told the BRC that the children had not been asked to watch over the books laid out to dry.They claimed the children picked up the books out of curiosity during the lunch break after seeing them drying under the sun.Saxena said the school’s version of events had been recorded during the inquiry and a detailed report would be submitted to the district project coordinator for further action.The education department is likely to decide on further action after examining the report and the school’s response to the show-cause notice.