Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram   

Agitation will continue, says Chennithala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Ramesh Chennithala on Wednesday said his party had resolved to stay on agitation mode demanding the withdrawal of the controversial Class 7 social science textbook on ground that it propagated Marxist ideals. He demanded the setting up a high-level committee of experts to review the Kerala curriculum framework and syllabus.

Addressing a press conference here, Mr. Chennithala said the agitations being conducted by the Kerala Students Union (KSU) and the Youth Congress would continue till their demands were met and the KPCC would consider taking up the agitation at an appropriate time. The contents of the controversial textbook needed no further review as the people of Kerala were convinced about its motives, he said.

Alleging that the Education Minister was trying to misguide the people, Mr. Chennithala said the Kerala curriculum framework was prepared within six months. Referring to the time taken to prepare the National curriculum framework by noted educationist Prof. Yashpal, the Kerala curriculum framework highlights purely local issues focussed on eight themes. The KPCC president said his party was totally opposed to four themes prepared for Classes I, III, V and VII. It was only in the Class VII textbook that these themes had been elaborated. He said the State textbook does not carry the names of those who prepared it, unlike NCERT textbooks.

The Education Minister had packed the curriculum committee with representatives of CPI(M)’s teachers’ organisations and fellow travellers. Even though the committee formed several sub-committees and guilds to prepare the textbook, the final responsibility was given to just seven persons who belonged to the Kerala State Teachers’ Association. Even the Kerala Sastra Sahitya Parishad supporters were kept out of it. The secrecy over the preparation of textbooks has given rise to doubts of the CPI(M)’s hidden agenda, he said.

Besides, the textbook could not be compared with the one prescribed for the CBSE for the same class in terms of its quality, content, correctness or objectives. The CBSE textbook was positive in its approach, while the State textbook had only negative aspects. It has highlighted only local struggles for land reforms conveniently forgetting the stand of the Congress pre-dating the Independence period. The books prescribed for reference were works of fiction. Besides religious connotations, the textbook also injected caste feelings in students, he alleged.

He said the Congress would oppose the attempts to infuse Marxist tenets in textbooks. The Education Minister had not cared to hold talks with student organisations in the last two years. Discussions were not held on several of his reforms in the education sector, be it the setting up of the Higher Education Council or the Kerala Education Rules, he said.

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