This report focuses on the critical issue of textbooks and the
processes of selection and prescription of curriculum, textbooks and
supplementary textual materials in different types of schools. Two recent events
had a significant impact on the issue and underlined the necessity of regulatory
mechanisms for selection and prescription of textual materials. Also underscored
was the need to improve the already existing mechanisms for the selection and
prescription of textbooks in schools within and outside the government system.
One was the controversy regarding the National Council of Educational Research
and Training (NCERT)’s National Curriculum Framework (NCF) for school education
in 2000 and the extensive shift in educational policy and the process of
formulating the national programme of education that it occasioned. Second, the
NCF was adopted without consulting the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE),
in effect disregarding the highest body in place to advise the central and state
governments in the matter of education. The NCF was implemented without its
approval. As a federal forum, the CABE represents the sole interface between the
central and state governments on this Concurrent List subject. The CABE also
includes educational officers, scholars and citizens’ representatives from
different walks of life. From its inception, it has played an important role in
shaping education and evolving a national consensus on education policy.
Curricula and textbooks had already been an issue of controversy
in several states before the NCF 2000 but the National Democratic Alliance (NDA)
government’s attempt to introduce major curricular changes triggered fresh and
intense public criticism of the perspective adopted in the NCF, especially the
wholesale revamping of the curriculum and textbooks in the social sciences. Both
academics and educationists have urged the restoration of the primacy of the
progressive discourse in curricular policy. The United Progressive Alliance (UPA)
government’s response has focused on taking a series of corrective steps to
rectify the problems in the curriculum. One of the first actions of the UPA in
the field of education was the reconstitution of the CABE which in turn
constituted several subcommittees, of which this Subcommittee has been entrusted
with the task of suggesting measures in regard to the regulation of curricula
and textbooks. The NCERT has been asked to review the NCF 2000. But the NCERT’s
review will not address the larger issue of textbooks and supplementary material
used in schools not affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE),
including the state government and non-government schools. The recommendation of
regulatory mechanisms for these schools is the main task entrusted to this
Committee.
Although the NCERT texts are used all over India, these are
however limited to schools affiliated to the CBSE and the number of schools
which accept this scheme remains small. Out of a total number of around 1,25,000
recognised secondary and higher secondary schools in the country, about 6,200
are at present under the CBSE. Changing the NCERT books may be necessary but
this clearly will not be enough, as the bulk of schools do not use the CBSE
syllabus. Even those that use the CBSE syllabus do so largely for the higher
classes for the purpose of board exams. The textbooks prepared and approved
through well-established official mechanisms in the states have also been found
to be not free of prejudice and preconceived notions. In addition, there are a
large number of schools run by social and religious organisations where, for
quite some time now, studies and reports have shown that children are being
socialised into a communal imagination orientation not at all in consonance with
the secular and democratic consensus.1
Education that inculcates a critical faculty and an emphasis on
reasoning is by its very nature secular education. Whether state-supported,
autonomous or privately financed, education should be committed to free inquiry
and the inculcation of an open mind. This requires that textbooks are open-ended
and encourage among children creative processes of inquiry, dissent and debate.
Textbooks can help children to develop and absorb the ideals and values of equal
citizenship, an appreciation of diversity, and imbibe the grammar of national
identity, culture and scientific temper. Indian school textbooks for quite some
time had attempted to inculcate these principles in order to portray and uphold
the values and traditions of a plural, equitable and democratic society. The
recent attempt to rewrite textbooks sharply and disturbingly unsettled and
eroded these values.
The rewriting of curricula and textbooks in the past few years
has caused widespread concern. Never before had curricula and textbooks been
subjected to such close scrutiny and public debate. The recent attempts to use
education for narrow politically partisan purposes to reflect the ideologies
propounded by certain organisations and political parties have met with
disapproval on the part of concerned parents and caused dismay and consternation
among educationists and academics. The major concern is the introduction of a
non-secular tone in the curriculum and textbooks that reflect narrow and
partisan points of view. The NCERT books prepared under the NCF 2000 had been
criticised widely for what they represent, with all their implications for the
disadvantaged – the minorities, tribals, Dalits and women – especially the
inherent consequences of perpetuating and reinforcing inequalities. As earlier
reports have pointed out, even before the NCF this trend of introducing
sectarian thinking was found in state-level textbooks but the NCF gave a new
impetus to these trends and legitimacy to their efforts. Quite apart from the
obvious communalisation of history, issues of serious concern are those of
gender and the status of women, class, caste-based discriminations,
community-driven stereotypes, environment, etc.
There is an urgent need to ensure that the education system
reflects the secular-nationalistic discourse; it must remain free of
communalism; it must reflect the cultural diversity of our nation and the
multicultural nature of our society; and it must not exacerbate gender, caste
and community inequalities. The very diversity and inequality of Indian society
is a compelling reason to address with urgency the questions of social equality,
multiple identities and national identity and their presentation in educational
materials. One of the most important means of promoting equity in a democratic
society is to make good critical education available to all. This requires
curricular frameworks that reflect these objectives. These then need to be
translated into textbooks.
The commitment towards achieving equality through education – a
central concern of the national endeavour underlying Indian education – has been
unequivocally voiced in all the major policy documents of independent India. The
task of translating this vision of equality into a curricular framework and into
textbooks is challenging enough and remains not fully realised. In other words,
we have not always been able to concretise the conceptions and policy statements
and embody these into a democratic curriculum which is reflected in textbooks.
The concerted sectarianism and communalist politics of the recent past has made
this task doubly difficult.
The Government of India reconstituted the CABE vide Resolution
6.7.2004. The first meeting was held on August 10-11, 2004. After extensive
discussions on several critical issues connected with education in this meeting,
the Minister for Human Resource Development has set up seven committees to deal
with important issues pertaining to different aspects of school, higher and
technical education. It was decided to set up a Committee of the CABE on
‘Regulatory Mechanisms for Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks Taught in Schools
Outside the Government System’.
The terms of reference (TOR) of the Committee are:
(a) To study and report on textbooks in government schools not
using the CBSE syllabus.
(b) To study the textbooks and curriculum of schools outside the
government system, including those run by religious and social organisations.
(c) To suggest an appropriate regulatory mechanism for
institutionalising the issue of preparation of textbooks and curricular
material.2
The Committee decided to review textbooks used in schools
affiliated to State Boards, private schools as well as those managed by
religious and social organisations which may or may not be affiliated to these
Boards. This is largely to bring within the scope of review textbooks other than
those published by the NCERT. The review of the NCERT curriculum and textbooks
is being done separately. The Committee is aware that private schools affiliated
to the CBSE are using textbooks published by private publishers in addition to
NCERT books. However, given its terms of reference, the Committee has limited
the scope of the review to textbooks used in schools not affiliated to the CBSE,
which will include textbooks produced by state governments and any textual
material published by non-governmental sources, including private publishers.
The review of textbooks has to be undertaken on the basis of
certain identifiable parameters which are clearly spelt out in the educational
polices and the Constitution. These are identified as core curricular areas
listed in Section 3.4 of the National Policy on Education 1986/92 and Cultural
Perspective and Value Education in Sections 8.1 to 8.6. These are identified as:
the freedom movement, national identity, promotion of values such as India’s
common cultural heritage, egalitarianism, democracy, secularism, equality of the
sexes, protection of the environment, removal of social barriers, observance of
the small family norm and inculcation of the scientific temper. These values are
expected to promote unity and integration of our people and also help eliminate
obscurantism, religious fanaticism, violence, superstition and fatalism.
Do states take these into consideration as a criterion for the
selection, preparation, prescription and approval of textual materials and how
they are presented? What mechanisms do states use? Are they adequate? Do they
apply to all types of schools, including those run by social and religious
organisations, and textbooks in use? These are some of the major questions the
Committee has endeavoured to address. As a first step we need to understand how
textbooks and other materials are prescribed and approved for children in
different states and union territories.
The Committee decided to examine a selected sample of textbooks
in the social sciences and Hindi, regional languages, English and a few moral
education books. This choice was also determined by the importance given to
social sciences in the educational policies. Almost all aims of education are
embodied and are to be realised through the teaching of social sciences and to a
lesser extent in the teaching of languages. The states identified for this
exercise are: Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala,
Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal. In these
states, textbooks used by state government-run schools as well as those produced
by private publishers used by religious and social organisations have been taken
up. A few cases of textbooks produced by private publishers have also been
examined.
This report has been divided into five chapters starting with
the introduction. The second chapter provides an overview of education policies
and related issues of curriculum and textbooks. The third chapter documents the
institutional arrangements for the preparation of textbooks through a mapping of
the regulatory mechanisms established by state governments for approval and
adoption of textbooks. The fourth chapter presents a review and analysis of the
contents of textbooks produced by state governments, private publishers and
cultural and social organisations. The fifth and concluding chapter puts forward
a series of recommendations for consideration by the CABE on regulatory
mechanisms for textbooks and parallel textbooks.
We have tried to undertake this exercise with as wide a
consultation as possible. We invited suggestions and responses from governmental
and non-governmental organisations, educational institutions and concerned
citizens to enable us to do justice to this extremely important task. We were
fortunate in receiving inputs and support from various individuals, institutions
and government bodies involved in the curricular issues, education and textbook
preparation.
We are aware that justice may not have been done in representing
and reflecting the great variety of textbooks and textual and supplementary
materials and types and managements of schools in India and the range of
governmental processes evolved through legislations and other means by different
states for the approval of textual materials and, above all, to the variety of
textual materials used in schools. Within the limited time available to the
Committee we have tried to be as representative as possible of the range and
diversity of structures and types of schools and of the textbooks and textual
materials used in them.
Members of the Committee
Professor Zoya Hasan, Co-Chairperson
Professor, Gopal Guru, Co-Chairperson
Professor GP Deshpande, Member
Secretary, School Education, Uttar Pradesh, Member
Secretary, School Education, Andhra Pradesh, Member
Secretary, School Education, West Bengal, Member
Secretary, School Education, Kerala, Member
Secretary, School Education, Rajasthan, Member
Ms Teesta Setalvad, Member
Professor Krishna Kumar, Director, NCERT, Member
Secretary n
