The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : DSERT says revised school curriculum will be ready in August

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Saturday, May 24, 2008
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

DSERT says revised school curriculum will be ready in August

Chitra V. Ramani

Some teachers involved in it were drafted for poll duty

Bangalore: The syllabi revision that was supposed to have been completed by this academic year, as per the National Curriculum Framework, has been delayed. Many of the teachers involved in the long-drawn process could not take time off their regular work. Some of the teachers were also drafted for election work.

Speaking to The Hindu, M.N. Baig, Director of the Directorate of State Education, Research and Training (DSERT), said: “Almost 95 per cent of the work has been completed. We are just waiting for the approval of the Government. Once that comes through, we will finish writing the textbooks in about two months,” he said.

Mr. Baig said: “Also, many of the teachers involved in the project were asked to report for election work. This derailed the process to a certain extent,” he said.

However, the revision and the textbooks would, in all probability, be ready sometime in August. “We will then introduce those textbooks in around 100 government schools on a pilot basis, mainly in the lower primary classes. However, we will not be able to introduce it in all schools in the coming academic year,” he said.

About the glaring errors in the previous year’s textbooks prepared by DSERT, Mr. Baig said the department had made efforts to correct all the mistakes.

Dismissing reports of shortage of textbooks, Mr. Baig said there were enough number of textbooks to be distributed among students in government, aided and unaided schools in the State.

No shortage

“We print the textbooks based on the requirement sent by private schools (unaided schools) and the previous year’s figures. We have taken steps to ensure that there are enough textbooks for everyone,” he said. For 2008-09 academic year, DSERT had despatched 70 per cent of the textbooks to the various Block Education Officers in the State.

“In government schools, the textbooks will be distributed on the first day after the school reopens,” he said.

He said that some schools might not have lifted the stock of textbooks or certain areas might not have agents, who would procure the textbooks. “Those will be the main reasons for non-availability of textbooks. Shortage of textbooks is out of question,” he added.

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