The Hindu : Kerala / Thiruvananthapuram News : Delete 3 chapters, suggests KPCC panel

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Kerala - Thiruvananthapuram

Delete 3 chapters, suggests KPCC panel

Special Correspondent

Photo: S.Mahinsha

Differing views: M.G.S. Narayanan presenting a report on the Class VII textbook to KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala in Thiruvananthapuram on Wednesday. –

Thiruvananthapuram: The Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee’s expert panel, headed by historian M.G.S. Narayanan, has suggested that the first three chapters of the controversial Class VII social science textbook be deleted.

But it refrained from recommending total recall of the book midway through the academic year in view of the difficulties it would pose to students and teachers.

The committee, which submitted its report to KPCC president Ramesh Chennithala and Opposition leader Oommen Chandy, found that the Kerala Curriculum Framework (KCF) had made serious deviations from the National Framework.

The KCF did not even remotely resemble the National Framework, Dr. Narayanan said at a press conference.

Dr. Narayanan, along with other committee members B. Hridayakumari, George Onakkoor, P.C. Cyriac, P.M. Jaleel, S. Sreedevi and P.V. Krishnan Nair, said that the committee had taken into consideration the huge financial burden the State government would have to bear if it were to recall the textbook midway. The committee felt that a few minor changes would not suffice and the controversial chapters needed to be deleted.

Till the new chapters are prepared, schools could teach the fourth and fifth chapters during the first term. Thus, the timetable and teaching process would not be disrupted, they said.

The committee said that experts representing all sections should be involved in the process of preparing new chapters and an expert committee should be appointed to evaluate this.

The committee, in its 88-page report, observed that violence was glorified throughout the textbook and hardly any attempt was made to show students the path of ahimsa and truth. The committee felt that the textbook’s content did not prompt students towards critical evaluation.

The SCERT textbook provides only one viewpoint instead of highlighting different observations of a particular topic as could be seen in the NCERT texts, it said. The committee has given 20 such observations on the shortcomings it could identify.

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