Educational policies are prepared by committees set up by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). These are approved by the CABE and also tabled for approval in both houses of Parliament. Several major committees have been set up since independence: the Secondary Education Commission (1952-53), Education and National Development (1964-66), National Policy on Education (NPE) 1986 and Programme of Action (POA) 1992. The Review Committee of the NPE 1986, known as the Acharya Ramamoorthy Committee (1990), reviewed the NPE 1986 and the Yash Pal Committee’s ‘Learning Without Burden’ (1994) suggests ways of reducing curricular load.

The National Curriculum Frameworks

Curriculum development, syllabus design and the preparation of instructional materials, including textbooks and their evaluation, began with the emergence of the NCERT as a nodal agency at the national level in the area of school education. The NCERT was involved directly in the process of curriculum development and preparation of textbooks. As the State Institutes of Education (SIEs), State Textbook Boards and State Councils of Educational Research and Training (SCERTs) were established, these gradually followed the pattern of providing technical support to research and development activities underlying the formulation and the preparation of textbooks at the state/union territory levels.

1. At the central level, based on education policy, a National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is brought out by the NCERT. Since independence, three NCFs have been framed on the basis of the recommendations of the two major committees, 1968 and 1986. The NCF framed in 2000 is the only NCF that was framed without a policy statement preceding it.

2. The NPE 1986 defines the NCF as follows: "The national system of education will be based on a national curricular framework which contains a common core along with other components that are flexible." Common core has been defined by the NPE as follows: history of India’s freedom movement; constitutional obligations; promotion of values such as India’s common cultural heritage; egalitarianism; democracy and secularism; equality of the sexes; protection of the environment; removal of social barriers; observance of the small family norm; inculcation of the scientific temper. Textbooks which seek to fulfil curriculum objectives must reflect the above-mentioned aspects of the ‘core’.

3. The NCF 2000 makes fundamental departures from the earlier NCFs and policies in respect of the role of values, the place of religion, equality of educational opportunity, etc. These departures generated wide controversy both with regard to (a) the process of preparation and (b) content of the NCF.

4. The Executive Committee of the NCERT in its meeting of July 19, 2004 decided to initiate a review of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) 2000. It decided to form five structures to undertake the NCF review. These structures are: the National Steering Committee; National Focus Group; Committee for Consultation with States; Research Unit; Coordination Committee. The National Steering Committee chaired by Professor Yash Pal has members including scholars from different disciplines, principals and teachers, representatives of NGOs and members of the NCERT faculty. The Committee is deliberating on all aspects of the school curriculum, taking into account the existing framework. The final review document will be presented to the Executive Committee of the NCERT and the Council of the General Body for discussion and approval, and ultimately to the CABE.

Following the curriculum framework, syllabi for the primary, middle, secondary and senior secondary stages are also prepared. The syllabi assume great importance, as this sets out both the content contours and topics on the basis of which the Examination Boards set questions for examinations. The syllabi are therefore more familiar documents among teachers, parents and students than the policy or the curriculum framework. There are many Boards in the country but most states have their own Examination Boards in addition to the CBSE and Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) Boards. Each Board prescribes its own syllabi. It may or may not adhere to the NCERT syllabi.

The textbook is a major educational tool for students. In India, textbooks occupy most of the educational space in schools. They are not just teaching manuals, they shape the minds of children in their formative years and have a profound influence on how young minds interpret reality. For this reason the content of textbooks or instructional material is a deeply contentious issue in several countries around the world. Indeed questions of curriculum and textbooks are so contested because they are at the heart of debates over national identity and over who will define and control what is worth knowing. This is probably why in a country as diverse as ours the issue of textbooks is a site of much contestation and conflicting interpretations. In one sense, the content of our textbooks is a crucial disseminator of fundamental values of citizenship, values that we need to pass on to the next generation. Thus the content of textbooks is of vital importance and has a significant impact on the educational development of students.

Types of Schools

Schools and school systems in India are a bewildering array of structure and functioning. Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) are primarily meant for children of central government officers who are posted all over India. They are affiliated to the CBSE which prescribes the syllabus and the NCERT textbooks. They function from Class I to Class XII. Navodaya Vidyalayas (NVs) are centrally managed and are meant for talented children from the rural areas and function from Classes VI to XII. They are also affiliated to the CBSE and use NCERT textbooks.

Private unaided schools are also affiliated to the CBSE and form a very influential group in the system. They use NCERT textbooks from Class IX onwards and function from preschool to Class XII. Private aided schools receiving aid from state governments are affiliated to the CBSE or State Boards.

Christian missionary schools are affiliated to the ICSE, CBSE and State Boards. In the past few years the International Baccalaureate has made significant inroads among elite private schools.

The majority of children study in schools run by the state government. These are affiliated to their own State Boards and use textbooks prescribed and prepared by their own state bodies, usually the State Institutes of Education or SCERTs.

Alternate schools under many names are also run under the SSA (Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan). They have textbooks, workbooks, worksheets and teaching-learning materials prepared by the SSA/DPEP (District Primary Education Programme).

There are lakhs of private unrecognised primary schools all over the country, for preschool to Class V/VIII. The textbooks used in these schools are more often than not low priced, low quality kunjis or ‘guides’.

There are also small primary schools run by several social and religious organisations which are not affiliated to any agency.

Then there is the National Institute of Open Schooling which has its own Board of Examinations and prepares and prescribes its own books. State Open Schools are run along the same lines as the National Open Schools.1

Curriculum Framework, Syllabi and Textbooks

With the adoption of the 10+2 pattern as recommended by the Education Commission (1964-66), the NCERT developed supporting syllabi and textbooks to be used as models by the states and union territories. Most states excepting the newly formed ones and the union territories have their own Examination Boards, similar to the CBSE, which are known as State Boards. The respective State Directorates along with the SCERTs prepare textbooks which are then printed by the Textbook Bureaus in states at a highly subsidised price.

The most important issue is with regard to textbooks and related literature used in schools run by religious and social organisations

The NCERT has brought out three sets of syllabi so far: in 1975, 1988 and 2002. Although the NCERT frames the syllabi, it is the CBSE that prescribes syllabi which are valid for purposes of examination and certification for schools affiliated to the CBSE. State Boards prescribe the syllabi and textbooks for schools affiliated to them. However, private schools do not necessarily follow the Board-prescribed syllabi and textbooks till Class VIII.

Non-NCERT, non-CBSE-prescribed textbooks constitute the majority of textbooks in use in the country. A detailed account of institutional mechanisms in the states for textbook preparation is given in the next chapter.

There are large numbers of textbooks published by the private sector. Non-government schools are free to choose publications, including those published by the private sector. Some of the elite schools use books produced by private publishers such as Oxford University Press, Ratna Sagar and Maktaba Jamia.2 Selection of textbooks from private publishers is dependent on the school, which generally invites publishers to bring the books before a committee of teachers to decide. Many incentives are offered by publishers to schools, which could range from price cuts to a percentage of total cost of books supplied being made over to the school.3 A measure of state patronage for them can be discerned from the fact that seminars and workshops for teachers, held by state bodies, are ‘sponsored’ by these publishers.4 However, the point is that these private publishers cannot be wished away legally. Every publisher has a right to publish and if parents choose to select the textbooks for their children to read, there is not much that can be done.

The most important issue is with regard to textbooks and related literature used in schools run by religious and social organisations which have a large outreach and impact. Some schools i.e. Saraswati Shishu Mandirs,6 Ekal Vidyalayas, Pathshalas, Madrassas, etc run by respective religious and social organisations follow their own curricula and books. Some of them use this route to promote ideologies that often contradict the basic principles and vision of the Constitution and educational policies.8 There is no mechanism to regulate the content of the textbooks used by these organisations or to prevent them from publishing and distributing them. They seek recognition neither from the state nor any examining Board. The Policy of Non-Formal Education (1986) enables any organisation to run non-formal centres. If they do not receive state funds, they are not governed by the state. They continue to run their ‘centres’ with books of their choice. When children are ready, they are registered with the Open School and obtain their certification.9

Some Important Issues

As there is no state-level curriculum statement, it is presumed that the syllabi adhere to the core elements of the NCF (which is the expectation of the NCF). No serious scrutiny of the extent of adherence to the core curriculum of state syllabi has been conducted so far.

Textbooks and curricula in schools run by religious and social organisations and schools not aided by the state are not regulated in any form by state agencies. Their adherence to constitutional provisions and educational policies is an issue of major concern and this has been discussed in Chapter IV on the social content of textbooks.

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Notes

1 Information from Note submitted by Janaki Rajan, Director, SCERT, New Delhi, to the CABE Committee.
2 Founded by Jamia Millia Islamia, the Maktaba Jamia is a private limited company with the Jamia Millia Islamia having an 80 per cent financial stake in the company.
3 Ibid.
4 Publishers also offer to underwrite seminar and other expenses of the schools. This is apart from the usual calendars, diaries, posters, stationery offered free to schools. Ibid.
6 An umbrella organisation, Vidya Bharati was founded in 1977 and at that time it ran 700 schools. In 2003 it had 14,000 schools, 73,000 teachers and 1.7 million pupils. "In 1991 Vidya Bharati claimed it was running the second largest chain of schools in the country, next only to the government schools." Information given in Christophe Jaffrelot, ed. The Sangh Parivar: A Reader, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2005, p. 6 and p. 199 respectively.
8 On schools and textbooks used in Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, Ekal Vidyalayas, etc see Tanika Sarkar, ‘Educating the Children of the Hindu Rashtra: Notes on RSS Schools’ in Christophe Jaffrelot, ed. The Sangh Parivar: A Reader; Teesta Setalvad, ‘How textbooks teach prejudice’, Communalism Combat, October 1999; Teesta Setalvad, ‘Gujarat: Situating the Saffronisation of Education’ in The Saffron Agenda In Education, Sahmat, New Delhi, 2001; Nalini Taneja, ‘Communalisation of Education: Taking Stock Again’, People’s Democracy, No. 43, October 2003.
9 Janaki Rajan’s Note submitted to the CABE Subcommittee.

Archived from Communalism Combat,  April 2009 Year 15    No.139, Report of the CABE Committee, Policies, Curricula, Syllabi and Textbooks

The post Chapter II – Policies, Curricula, Syllabi and Textbooks appeared first on SabrangIndia.

Textbooks have always been an integral part of the Indian school education system. As the school education programme acquired a mass character in the post-independence period, the absence of good quality textbooks began to be acutely felt. Yet the period immediately after independence saw no major effort to mass-produce textbooks. As the system expanded, the textbook industry became one of the very profitable fields for investment which also led to a proliferation of low quality, substandard and badly produced textbooks. Thus the availability of textbooks at affordable prices for the poor also became an important issue. The Education Commission (1964-66) points out that textbook writing and production did not receive the attention they deserved. The Commission also identified several factors contributing to the problem, such as the lack of interest shown by top-ranking scholars, malpractices in the selection and prescription of textbooks, unscrupulous tactics adopted by several publishers, lack of research in the preparation and production of textbooks and the almost total disregard of the need for bringing out ancillary books such as teachers’ guides and supplementary material. It is in this context that many state governments took over the production of textbooks.¹

The establishment of the Central Bureau of Textbook Research in 1954 and its subsequent merger into the NCERT in 1961 gave a new direction to textbook development and production. The NCERT launched a comprehensive programme of textbook production from the late 1960s. The National Board of School Textbooks in its first meeting in 1969 suggested that the NCERT should work out a general framework in the form of principles and criteria for preparing textbooks for different school subjects by actively involving state authorities, subject specialists, teachers and other educators.

Emergence of State Agencies: NCERT, SCERTs and Textbook Bureaus

Efforts to institutionalise textbook preparation and production began with state production of textbooks in the post-independence period. Uttar Pradesh, for instance, was one of the first states to do so. The State Institutes of Education (SIEs) and State Institutes of Science Education in the mid-1960s took up this task. Both structures were integrally part of the State Directorates of Education. The NCERT had also begun preparing textbooks at the national level. Particularly with respect to social sciences, the writing of history became tied to the elaboration of the nationalist project to build a democratic, liberal, socialist, humanistic vision. Moved by the optimism of the age and the urge to provide the children of new India with a history of India’s past, many reputed academics were invited to write textbooks when the NCERT was set up in the mid-1960s.

During this time, state governments, faced with the task of providing textbooks in schools which then were predominantly government-run, established Textbook Bureaus and State Boards of Examination. While the Textbook Bureaus focused on the printing and distribution of textbooks and the Boards had the task of prescribing syllabi and conducting examinations, the states used several methods for the actual preparation of textual materials.

A few state governments established Textbook Corporations for the production of textbooks. In most states, the function of textbook preparation, particularly for primary and upper primary classes, was taken over by SCERTs which subsumed the SIEs organisationally as well as functionally. For instance, the Maharashtra government combined the task of textbook production and related research by the creation of the Maharashtra State Board of Textbook Production and Curriculum Research. Based on the recommendations of the NPE 1986 to decentralise curricula and textbook writing, states began to establish SCERTs, either closing down the older SIEs or amalgamating them with the SCERTs. However, there existed a tension with regard to their functioning. While states were prepared to allow the SCERTs to prescribe the function of textbook preparation for primary and upper primary classes, they were reluctant to hand over a similar role to the SCERTs in respect of secondary education.

Textbook preparation at the secondary level was assigned either to the wholly state-controlled Board of Education or the state’s Directorate of Education. However, neither structure had the professional wherewithal to undertake the academic task of textbook writing, the former being an examining body and the latter an administrative one. They relied upon ‘established’ academics chosen by a committee constituted to choose writers. In effect, textbook preparation was left to the discretion of handpicked academics. This is not to give the impression that in contrast to the situation as regards secondary education all was well with regard to primary and middle schools. This does not imply that the tasks, even for primary and middle sections, were fully streamlined and that all the SCERTs carried them out systematically. For one, some of the SCERTs, as in case of the north-eastern states, came into existence much later and the responsibility for textbook preparation and production in some of them is still quite fluid.

There is hardly any regulation or regulatory mechanism for the textbooks and textual materials used in schools outside the government system
 

The textbooks for the secondary and higher secondary stages are generally adopted from the NCERT in most of the states. Textbooks at the secondary stage are not prepared in Delhi, as all schools are affiliated to the CBSE. CBSE-prescribed textbooks are used at the higher secondary/PUC stage in Delhi. The Himachal Pradesh Board does not prepare textbooks for Classes XI and XII; instead, books of the NCERT are recommended in the schools. In Haryana also, textbooks published by the NCERT have been introduced in the state at the secondary and higher secondary/PUC stage. In Orissa, at the secondary stage (for Classes VIII, IX and X) the Board of Secondary Education, Orissa – which is an autonomous organisation – prepares textbooks. At higher secondary education (for Classes XI and XII) the State Bureau of Textbook Preparation and Publication, Bhubaneswar, is responsible for preparing textbooks. But, as already mentioned, very few states directly intervene in private unaided schools with regard to the nature of teaching-learning material and books being used. Once recognition is given to such private self-financing schools, public examinations are the only link between the schools and the state government authorities.²

The role of the NCERT as a textbook producer at the central level has expanded enormously with the publication of NCFs and the collaborative arrangement between the CBSE and NCERT.

With the huge expansion of the private unaided sector at both the elementary and secondary levels, divergence in the use of textbooks by government and private schools has acquired considerable importance as described in the ensuing sections. Given this diversity of textbooks in all types of schools, what goes into the textbooks is a matter of national importance and merits the highest attention.

Textbook Preparation Mechanisms for Schools in the Government System in the States

What processes do the SCERTs/other agencies adopt in preparing textbooks? If private publishers are involved, how are the books approved and prescribed by the state government bodies? Are private schools free to use any textbook? The CABE Subcommittee explored these questions with state agencies through quick questionnaire-based surveys. Eighteen states responded. In addition, the Subcommittee studied the responses to questionnaires sent out by the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA).3 The Committee has also looked into the state studies series undertaken by the NIEPA between 1994 and 2004.

Based on these studies plus information available from state reports commissioned by the Committee, state mechanisms can be broadly categorised as:

1. States which relied on the NCERT textbooks and de facto accepted the presumed institutional mechanisms of the central agency to approve textbooks. Examples are Arunachal Pradesh and the union territories.

2. States which permit textbook preparation up to Class VIII by the centrally funded and controlled DPEP/SSA and, for the secondary stage, use their own State Boards. In Himachal Pradesh, textbooks are prepared by DPEP/SSA and printed by the Himachal Pradesh Board of School Education. In Orissa, the responsibility for preparing the textbooks for different streams of education rests with the different organisations/institutions of the state. At the elementary stage the Directorate of Teacher Education and SCERT and the Orissa Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA), Bhubaneswar, prepare textbooks.

3. States which took on the responsibility of preparing their own textbooks but entrusted this task to their own, wholly controlled state agencies. States like Karnataka and Gujarat have the Directorate of Textbooks which is a wing of the SCERT. The SCERT itself is very strongly state-controlled. In Mizoram and West Bengal, the Board of School Education prepares the textbooks for the elementary stage. In Mizoram, the Mizoram Board of School Education Act l975 empowers the Board to prescribe, prepare, publish and select textbooks for the various examinations conducted by the Board. Under the Board, the Statutory Committee of the Mizoram Board of School Education selects textbook writers and editors for textbook and syllabus preparation. In Gujarat, the Gujarat School Textbook Board is the regulatory authority. The GCERT only provides technical support to the Textbook Development Board which is fully responsible for the preparation, publication and distribution of textbooks. In Madhya Pradesh, for example, the SCERT prepares the textbooks and their printing, publication and distribution is done entirely by the Madhya Pradesh State Textbook Corporation.

4. Among the states which permit SCERTs to prepare textbooks up to Class VIII, which rely on the CBSE/NCERT for the secondary stage, are Delhi, Mizoram, Arunachal Pradesh, Haryana and, of course, the union territories. In Haryana, the Board of School Education assigns the work of material development to the SCERT which in turn accomplishes the work by organising workshops with schoolteachers and subject experts and subject specialists working in the SCERT. While the SCERT produces/develops textbooks for primary classes (I to V), for Classes VI to VIII, textbooks published by the NCERT have been adopted by the state. In Delhi, teams comprising senior university teachers, professionals from the NGO sector, college teachers, SCERT and DIET (District Institute of Education and Training) teacher educators and schoolteachers prepare the textbooks in a collaborative mode for Classes I to VIII. In Rajasthan, textbooks for Classes I to VIII are prepared by the SCERT, approved by the state government and published by the Textbook Board. Before publication, computerised manuscripts of all textbooks in the form of hard copy are presented to the Secretary (Education) and to the Education Minister for approval. Similarly, in the schools run by the state government or recognised and aided by the state government of Uttar Pradesh, it is compulsory to use only those textbooks which are approved by the Uttar Pradesh Basic Shiksha Parishad and Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad. But the two Boards (Parishads) of the state government sometimes only approve a panel of authors and not the precise books and the schools are free to choose books written by any of the empanelled authors. From Class IX to XII this practice is quite often followed.

Institutional structures and mechanisms, including legislative measures, exist in several states. In Orissa, legislative measures have recently been taken for the adoption of a language textbook (Oriya) in English medium schools affiliated to the ICSE and CBSE. In Madhya Pradesh, the state government has formulated an Act, the Madhya Pradesh Prathamik Tatha Madhyamik Shiksha (Pathya Pustakon Sambandhi Vyavastha) Adhiniyam 1973 and 1974, which approves the textbooks of the state. These approved books are to be adopted essentially by government primary and upper primary schools.4

While in most cases textbooks are printed in state government establishments, some states use private facilities also for the purpose. In Karnataka, the Directorate of Textbooks as a wing of the Department of State Educational Research and Training (DSERT) prepares all the textbooks for Classes I to X. After preparation, 60 per cent of the textbooks are given for printing to the government press and 40 per cent are printed by private printers/publishers. Management of printing and publication is an important issue, as it involves large amounts of investment and substantial profit-making wherever private publishers are involved.

Gujarat follows a three-tier try-out system in three phases before introducing textbooks. Try-out: Phase I involves try-out in 400 randomly selected primary schools; Try-out: Phase II involves try-out in selected schools of low literacy rate districts; and Phase III involves implementation of the modified textbooks all over the state. In West Bengal also, a periodic try-out process is adopted before finalisation of the manuscripts. In Mizoram, the Mizoram Board of School Education (MBSE) as a first step examines the curriculum and syllabi of other Boards and the NCERT and formulates a suitable curriculum and syllabi for Mizoram state. Editors are also appointed to edit the textbooks written by local experts. The Mizoram Board of School Education regulates textbook publication through private publishers. The State Board prints all the textbooks, as the Board is empowered by the Mizoram Board of School Education Act 1975, passed by the Mizoram Legislative Assembly.

In Karnataka, Textbook Committees are formed for every subject/class, consisting of subject experts and classroom teachers. The manuscripts prepared are scrutinised by another group of experts and introduced for one year in selected blocks of the state. The textbooks are again revised, based on the feedback, and introduced in the entire state.

The Madhya Pradesh State Board-affiliated schools, both government and private, are all supposed to use only the books produced by the State Government Education Department i.e. developed by the Madhya Pradesh SCERT and printed by the Madhya Pradesh State Textbook Corporation. The Madhya Pradesh Textbook Act mandates this. Even the books or magazines provided to the libraries are supposed to be approved by the state government. The mechanism of textbook writing is done in a workshop mode. Resource persons for these workshops are identified from various fields of education – schoolteachers, subject experts, persons from Regional Institutes of Education (RIEs), DIETs, Colleges of Teacher Education (CTEs), Institutes of Advanced Study in Education (IASEs) and retired persons. A Textbook Standing Committee approves the textbooks and the state government notifies the approved textbooks.

In Bihar, the institutional mechanisms for regulating school education are fully in place but there is a total lack of coordination between agencies entrusted with the preparation and publication of textbooks in Bihar. This is largely because of the failure of the SCERT to carry out its responsibility with regard to the production of textbooks owing to an absence of coordination between the different organisations involved in the supervision and preparation of books. They are neither well organised nor adequately prepared to carry out this work. The inefficiency of government departments has led directly to the emergence of parallel textbook centres in the state, weakening the existing institutions to a point where there is hardly any publication of textbooks by government institutions and the textbooks which are published do not reach the student. As a result, the responsibility for production of books has gone out of the hands of the government. For all practical purposes the production and distribution of textbooks is happening outside the state structures. Even though they are supposed to use textbooks produced by the government, the private schools are not doing so because government agencies have not been able to cater to the huge requirement of textbooks for schools in Bihar. Shortages and delays in production have thus legitimised the production of textbooks by private organisations. There is very little attempt to remedy the complete mismanagement in the preparation and production of textbooks, in the political as well as administrative spheres.⁵

The free space permitted in the system is often abused for partisan purposes by sectarian organisations and schools affiliated to them

Very few states approve textbooks written and produced by other individuals or organisations. Even in the states where such a provision exists, it is done only after the books are examined first by a group of experts in a workshop and the opinion is taken to the state-level Textbook and Syllabus Committee for final perusal and approval. It is only in the states of Delhi, Haryana, West Bengal, Nagaland and Himachal Pradesh that private unaided schools are free to adopt textbooks of their choice though there is no particular procedure for regulating the adoption of books. In all other states, the schools have to adopt the state-approved textbooks. But to some extent this prescription is only notional, as it is linked to the syllabus prescribed for the final board examination. Beyond the use of the state-prescribed textbooks, private unaided schools are free to adopt additional or supplementary books.

Mechanisms for Textbooks Used by Schools Outside the Government System

The non-government schools are of a wide variety. Some are run by private managements which have a chain of schools. These chains are sometimes citywide or statewide and sometimes countrywide. Besides, there are schools run by various religious and social organisations. Some schools are run by Christian missionary groups of different denominations. Then there are madrassas run by different Muslim councils or groups and there are Saraswati Shishu Mandirs run by Vidya Bharati, the education wing of the RSS. This variety is made even more complex by those chains of schools which focus on a particular language or subject, like Sanskrit Pathshalas. The method of selecting textbooks in these schools is as varied as their management. Those schools which fall under any council or board or trust choose books as per the directions of the latter. But these councils/boards/trusts do not have a uniform method. Some of them prescribe specific books for various subjects whereas some others just adopt the government-approved books and yet some others choose a combination of the two, that is, they adopt government-approved books for some subjects but for other subjects they prescribe specific books of their choice. Some boards/councils do not prescribe to schools any specific books but give them a syllabus or curriculum framework in the form of guidelines and the school principals, in consultation with teachers, decide upon the prescription of textbooks for their respective schools. There are several chains of schools run by private trusts which adopt government-approved books. Vidya Bharati/Saraswati Shishu Mandirs, Darul Uloom Deoband, Nadwatul Ulama, etc not only prescribe specific books for their schools, they also publish them. The Deeni Taleemi Council prescribes and publishes some specific books, mainly for religious education, but for the other subjects it prescribes the books approved by the Uttar Pradesh Basic Shiksha Parishad and Uttar Pradesh Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad. The Council of Anglo-Indian Schools provides a curriculum and leaves the choice of textbooks to the schools supported by it.

There is hardly any regulation or regulatory mechanism for the textbooks and textual materials used in schools outside the government system.6

In all the states except Gujarat, non-government schools have private publishers providing teaching and learning aids for teachers and students. There is a flourishing private industry that thrives on the prescribed textbooks of the centre and state. Textbooks prepared by private publishers range all the way from being shadow books of the NCERT/states’ books to kunjis, workbooks and guidebooks. Private publishers visit the schools with their books, teachers judge the books and on the basis of consensus books are selected. Private publishers informally visit the faculty members and inform them about the books, place specimen copies before them and request them to suggest books to the students. Students generally for examination purposes purchase these books.7

In actual practice, many private schools use books published by private agencies either as supplementary materials or even as substitutes. These books have not gone through any process of government approval. Many schools use private books along with the state government textbooks, others use them as substitutes while still others use private publishers’ books only where government textbooks are not available for that particular subject at that level – for example, Environmental Studies for Classes I and II or Moral Science, General Knowledge, Drawing, etc.

Supplementary workbooks and kunjis are freely available as are dictionaries, question banks, answer banks, guess papers printed by a host of publishers from Nai Sadak which has emerged as a parallel textbook centre. These kunjis/supplementary workbooks are available on sale for each of these books, which may or may not be prescribed by the school but publishers market these through the tuition routes.8 Teachers are also known to unofficially nudge children towards a particular set of kunjis. Some of these books are at least twice as expensive as the government textbooks. There is a flourishing market for kunjis in the states as well. These are generally of poor quality, unregulated and expensive. In Maharashtra, for instance, while the prescribed social sciences textbooks in History, Geography and Civics separately are priced between Rs 10-12 each, the kunjis cost Rs 30-40 each. The majority of children buy both. This publishing usually begins from Class VI but of late there are kunjis from Class IV.

Some schools run by religious and social organisations, such as Vidya Bharati schools, are affiliated to the CBSE or their local State Boards. For instance, in Rajasthan, the school authorities say that they recommend NCERT or SCERT books to the students. Value education books are written by some of the authors who have been identified by the parental organisations of the schools, like the DAV College Management Committee, Delhi, Bharatiya Vidya Samiti, Rajasthan, Vidya Bharati Sanskriti Shiksha Sansthan and Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, Mumbai. School authorities also argue that [the selection of] books of private publishers which they suggest or recommend to the students is based upon decisions taken by faculty members.

There are a large number of madrassas all over India. At present there are official Boards of Madrassa Education in Assam, Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. A large number of madrassas come within their jurisdiction and subsist on government funds. But in the rest of the country, they are being run on private charity. The NCERT has no provision for a Board administering the curriculum of madrassas in India. State governments like Uttar Pradesh do appoint such Boards but Delhi, for instance, does not.9

Delhi contains around 40 madrassas, of which a handful, like Rabiya Madrassa, is open to girls.10 There are two types of madrassas, those that follow the NCERT syllabus (Urdu medium) and those teaching only manqulat (religious education).

Madrassas following the NCERT syllabus have to teach with translations of English textbooks.11 Those teaching religious education follow a curriculum dating back to the 18th century. It includes the Koran, Fiqh (Jurisprudence), Sarf and Nahw (Arabic Literature and Grammar) and Tarikh (History from the Prophet to Khilafat-e-Rashida, 610-661 CE). As the qualifications provided by these madrassas are not recognised elsewhere, they prepare students only to become teachers themselves in these schools or to become imams, muezzins, khatibs, kazis and muftis.12

Some Important Issues

It is important to recognise that the states have come a long way in improving the practices related to printing and production of textbooks. But there is no proper direction in the policies and practices related to preparation and use of textbooks in schools. All the states have established mechanisms for the selection, publication and approval of textual materials. But the mechanisms and processes vary from state to state. It is a mixed picture with regard to which body will approve the textbooks. Almost every state has, through legislation, created state agencies/bodies for syllabus preparation and textbooks.

What is important to note is that these processes and mechanisms are all rather mechanically followed by the state agencies without much regard for the substance and content of textbooks. What is of real concern is that there is no way of assessing whether the textbooks actually adhere to the aims of education policy. Also, there appears to be very little application of mind with regard to the selection of material. The State Boards or SCERTs appoint expert committees to prepare the curriculum. The processes are all in place but the content is not of good quality or even always agreeable. This is partly because of the overwhelming emphasis on form with very little attention being devoted to content of textbooks and supplementary materials.

Another disturbing fact is that the free space permitted in the system is often abused for partisan purposes by sectarian organisations and schools affiliated to them. Such organisations exploit the fact of the palpable lack of critical scrutiny of the substance to smuggle in textual materials that dangerously undermine the aims of education and even vitiate the constitutional framework.

It appears necessary to issue a set of national guidelines to ensure that the core reading and learning material made available to children and teachers in schools scrupulously conform to constitutional values and educational policies and ideals. However, it must continue to be the responsibility of state governments to ensure that they are not flouted by cultural and social organisations which have established their schools and use privately published books within the state or by private educational establishments. n

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Notes

1 This section on institutional arrangements and regulatory mechanisms has gained much from a Note prepared by R. Govinda and Mona Sedwal, ‘Preparation, Production and Prescription of Textbooks for School Education in India’, NIEPA.
2 Ibid.
3 Ibid.
4 Ibid.
5 Bihar Report.
6 Some of this information is based on responses of SCERTs, SIEs, SIETs (State Institutes of Educational Technology) to the questionnaire sent by the CABE Subcommittee to elicit information on regulatory mechanisms in the states, 2005.
7 Information from Janaki Rajan’s Note submitted to the CABE Committee.
8 Ibid.
9 Report on Delhi Madrassas.10 Ibid, p. 2. 11 Ibid, p. 6. 12 Ibid.

Archived from Communalism Combat,  April 2009 Year 15    No.139, Report of the CABE Committee, Institutional Mechanisms for Preparation of  Textbooks in the States

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1.1 The state has a duty to provide a meaningful quality education for all as part of its duty to provide school education for all, as part of the latter’s fundamental right. It is obvious that textbooks are a fulcrum of any system which seeks to provide quality education. We have now an enormous variety of textbooks in the country and the content analysis undertaken for this report shows that there are many problems with textbooks in use in different types of schools. The provision of textbooks in our country is largely governed by a laissez-faire approach. While the plurality in the textbooks and textual materials so produced is and can be fruitful, it is important that these textbooks have to be informed by the philosophy of liberal, secular and democratic education. They need to keep the Constitution and its provisions in view. It is important that textbooks and textual materials are written and produced within this framework and the country must be satisfied that these processes are transparent.

1.2 There is an urgent need to set up an institutional facility to keep an eye on textbooks. Research on textbooks is an essential feature of a healthy education system but in the context of the challenges we face, research must take the form of inquiry into specific problems relating to the quality of textbooks and the values they convey. An institutional structure to perform this task needs to be independent of any organisation which is involved in textbook preparation. This would imply that the institutional facility we are recommending for exercising vigilance on textbooks cannot be associated with the NCERT at the national level and SCERTs at the state level. The NCERT is a major player in the textbook industry and is likely to remain involved in it in the foreseeable future. Therefore, while the NCERT’s and SCERT’s role as a research organisation must extend to research on textbooks, independent institutional structures need to be set up to exercise vigilance on textbooks published by both government organisations as well as by others. The structure can be called the National Textbook Council. The state governments may be encouraged to set up their own State Textbook Councils. Both the National Textbook Council and State Textbook Council should be fully autonomous and representing genuine voices in civil society and the academia so that the monitoring of textbooks can be performed with intellectual rigour, sensitivity and commitment to constitutional values. The primary role of these Councils would be to review the contents of textbooks to ensure compliance with the constitutional values and national policies on education. The National Textbook Council may devise its own procedures for review. Given the fact that ordinary citizens do not have a forum where they can complain about the content and quality of textbooks, even though their own children are involved, these Councils may especially respond to complaints received from the public about the quality and value perspective of school textbooks by conducting specific inquiries.

2.1 The CABE may set up a Standing Committee. The Standing Committee will inform the CABE from time to time about textbook-related matters and seek guidance from the National Textbook Council. The Committee will from time to time review and examine standards and relevance of textual materials for the educational enterprise and assess the social content of textbooks and textual materials and examine whether they are consistent with the vision of the Constitution and the values of the national policy on education and in terms appropriate for children at different stages of development. It will submit its report to the government and this should be made public.

2.2 It is extremely important that the principle of periodic review of textual materials be accepted and review undertaken on a regular basis. The CABE Standing Committee can decide the periodicity of such reviews.

2.3 Guidelines should be laid down for the periodic review of textual materials of all kinds so that textbooks are consistent with the secular fabric of Indian governance. The Standing Committee would be empowered to prepare the guidelines and outline the parameters for review. It is important that the criteria for approval of textual materials must include a proper analysis of content to assess its adherence to the core principles before the textbooks are approved and prescribed. This will need to be conducted by academic experts who can judge departures from core principles of egalitarianism, democracy, secularism and removal of social barriers, which define the national endeavour of education for all and nation building. These guidelines must be strictly adhered to.

2.4 The Standing Committee should make these periodic reviews and reports public. This should be widely publicised through the media and other means to increase public awareness of the social content of textbooks and the importance of using textual materials that are in keeping with the values and spirit of egalitarianism, secularism and democracy.

2.5 The review process must be initiated without inconveniencing parents and children and be completed within six months of the beginning of the new academic session.

3.1 It is a matter of concern that the NCERT and SCERT have so far not taken up research on textbooks as a major area of research and this needs to be strengthened. The NCERT and SCERTs can be asked to set up units dedicated to research on textbook preparation and evaluation. Academic autonomy required for undertaking this function in an objective manner should be provided to the NCERT and SCERTs.

3.2 Adequate funding must be made available to concerned agencies for engaging in research on social content of textbooks. Adequate staff must be provided so that it could function in conjunction with and provide support to the CABE Standing Committee for Curricular Review. The MHRD, State Education Departments and State Directorates of Education should earmark funds for this purpose and all institutions of higher learning should support research in school textbooks.

Archived from Communalism Combat,  April 2009 Year 15    No.139, Report of the CABE Committee, Recommendations on Regulatory Mechanisms for Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks

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Archived from Communalism Combat,  April 2009 Year 15    No.139, Ekal Vidyalaya Way,  Training to Hate: The Ekal Vidyalaya Way

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Chapter I
Introduction

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.

The attempt to rewrite textbooks sharply unsettled and eroded the values and traditions of a plural, equitable and democratic society

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
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Notes

1 NCERT, Report of the National Steering Committee on Textbook Evaluation, Volume 1, 1993, Volume 2, NCERT, New Delhi, 1994.
2 One issue pertains to the TOR itself. The first meeting of the Committee noted the contradiction between the title of the Committee, ‘Regulatory Mechanisms for Textbooks and Parallel Textbooks Taught in Schools Outside the Government System’, and the terms of reference which asked the Committee to study and examine textbooks in schools not affiliated to the CBSE, which would include state government and non-government schools. The Joint Secretary, Shri Sudeep Banerjee, dealing with the CABE in the MHRD, later clarified that the TOR of the Committee included an examination of both government and non-government textbooks. The second issue pertains to the second term of reference i.e. religious and social organisations. Some members raised the issue as to which organisations fall under this category. While this issue is important, it falls outside the purview of the Committee. A view nevertheless was expressed that the government if it so wishes may apply its mind to the matter in the appropriate forum.

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