Kerala - Kozhikode   

NCERT textbooks should be the model: MGS

KOZHIKODE: Noted historian M.G.S. Narayanan said here on Saturday that the NCERT textbooks would be an ideal model for the State to follow while preparing new textbooks.

He said he was recommending NCERT textbooks as a model, as, in his view, the revised textbooks prescribed for classes I, III, V and VII for students of the State “smacked of poverty of ideas and a tendency to promote vested interests.”

Mr. Narayanan, former chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR), made the remarks while inaugurating a seminar organised at Sikshak Sadan here by the academic council of the Kerala Aided Primary Teachers Union (KAPTU).

He hoped a more positive approach would be followed while preparing new textbooks for children studying in Classes II, IV, VI and VIII.

The KAPTU has decided to submit a report to the State government on “the glaring shortcomings” it claims to have detected in textbooks prescribed for students of various classes.

Union leaders had said in Kozhikode on Friday there were “serious errors and distortion of ideas” in textbooks for Classes I, III, V and VII. These should be corrected immediately, they demanded. It was unfortunate only the Social Science textbook book for Class VII had become the centre of controversy, they said.

“There is clear evidence of an attempt to subvert the State’s educational system and its culture. Textbooks have been made tools for political propaganda through its educational reforms,” C. Pradeep, general-secretary of the union, alleged.

“The foundation of education is laid from Class I to VII. It is sad that this is being weakened by the government,” leaders of the union alleged.

Based on the discussions, a report would be submitted to the government. The union has also expressed concern at the denial of compensatory off for teaching for attending cluster meetings. The KAPT union will stage a dharna in front of Secretariat on August 30 against the government’s “negative attitude to teachers’ problems.”

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