Textbooks panel decides to tweak certain sections

The new social science textbooks of Standard 5 and 8, which have faced strong allegations of having a saffron slant, are now set to be revised in parts.

Possible changes were discussed at the textbook committee review meeting convened at the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) on Saturday, which was held at the behest of the Commissioner for Public Instruction following the controversy.

Map dropped

For example, the controversial map of undivided India will be dropped from the Standard 8 textbook, but will stay in a “different format” in Standard 5 textbook, said G.S. Mudambadittaya, who heads the committee of experts that framed the new syllabus. A report on the meeting's outcome would be submitted to the Commissioner by Tuesday, he added.

Vijay Poonacha T., professor, Department of History, Kannada University, who headed the syllabus committee for History for Standard 8, said that some “unnecessary details” were deleted from the chapter on Vedic age, besides the map. Some changes were also made in the Civics lesson on citizenship, he added.

Speaking to

The Hindu , Mr. Mudambadittaya said that the review and revision process had begun even before the controversy blew up. He insisted that many of the parts, about which objections were being raised, were only “based on latest research” and carried no bias.

“What is saffronisation?” he demanded to know, adding that the effort was only to make children aware of a view of history that is “not given to us by the British”.

He said there was no deviation from the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005, the emphasis of which was on “setting students thinking”.

What NCF says

Interestingly, while the NCF does insist on helping children go beyond rote learning, it insists that textbooks should uphold democratic and secular values as well.

The position paper by the national focus group on social science, constituted by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) as per NEF, says: “In a plural society like ours, it is important that all regions and social groups be able to relate to the textbooks.”

It also says that social sciences carry “a normative responsibility to create and widen the popular base for human values, namely freedom, trust, mutual respect, and respect for diversity.” Teaching, it further says, should focus on concerns such as threats to the environment, caste/class inequality and state repression.

It remains to be seen whether the revised textbooks have addressed these issues, considering that many of the objections were raised on the ground that portrayal of people and places in the textbooks did not reflect a pluralist society in an unbiased fashion.