The Members of Bethany Education Society on Friday brought to the notice of Union Human Resource Development Minister M.M. Pallam Raju the alleged saffornisation of textbooks of classes 5 to 8 by the State Government.
Sister Cicilia Mendonca said that the text books designed by the State Government did not conform to the National Curriculum Framework formulated by the National Council of Educational Research and Training under the chairmanship of Yash Pal. “While textbooks in Kerala conform to the national curriculum framework, we do not see the same here,” Sister Mendonca told Mr. Raju. She submitted a memorandum to him. A copy of it was sent to the NCERT by the committee in October 2012.
The memorandum mentioned that the textbooks contained lessons that projected Dalits, women, tribal people and members belonging to minority communities as inferior. This was contrary to the NCF that stressed the need for textbooks to be culturally neutral. There was an extensive distortion of history, which according to the committee, was most frightening. There had hardly been any attempt to build a foundation of scientific understanding of history.
Physiotherapy council
Earlier, students pursuing Bachelor and Master degrees in physiotherapy courses met Mr. Raju and demanded setting up of a separate council for physiotherapists on the same lines as the Medical Council. In the absence of such a council, there was no check on the quality of education that was being provided. Private hospitals were paying meagre salaries to physiotherapists. Formation of a council would help improve the standard of education.
