Recently the Parliamentary Standing Committee (PSC) has submitted a report to improve the content and design of school textbooks.
The committee was set up to identify references to non-historical facts in textbooks. The objective of this committee was to ensure proportional reference to all phases of Indian history and to highlight the role of women who have achieved great achievements.
Key recommendations of the committee
- Compulsory standards should be developed regarding text-book content, graphics and layout, supplementary material and pedagogical approaches.
- There is a need for more child friendly text books through the use of pictures, graphics, QR codes and other audio-visual content.
- Primary school textbooks should serve two purposes: to provide a strong foundation for the main components of education (reading, writing, etc.) and to create curiosity among students.
- The text books should include the biographies of hitherto unknown men and women from different states and districts who have positively influenced our national history, pride and unity.
- The wrong portrayal of historical personalities and freedom fighters should be rectified.
- The educational methods adopted in ancient universities like Nalanda, Vikramshila and Taxila should be studied. Also, those methods should be suitably modified to establish them as an ideal reference for teachers.
- Traditional Indian knowledge systems should be linked with modern science. Apart from this, the contributions of ancient India in the fields of philosophy, science, mathematics etc. should also be included in the text books.
Source – The Hindu
