Regarding the contents of school textbooks and the need to get them re-evaluated, Sachar Committee has said that the textbooks should not only reflect reality but also help in creating appropriate values. Since the children tend to read their textbooks several times, their familiarity with the text is significant and acts to reinforce the values are being suggested in the text. If the texts do not reflect diversity or are derogatory with respect to specific communities, they can alienate children of those communities from the wider society.
Simple things in textbooks can sow the seeds for religious intolerance, create caste bias and/or reduce sensitivity to gender differences, while the intent and purpose of texts should be to do just the opposite. The Committee recommends that a process of evaluating the content of school textbooks needs to be initiated to purge them of explicit and implicit content that may impart inappropriate social values, especially religious intolerance. The Committee had noted that a very systematic effort of this kind was done by Samaan, a Kolkata based NGO, for the state board textbooks (Class 7-10) in West Bengal.
However, as per information available, such revaluation work could not be taken up during the seven years of the UPA Government after the Sachar Report was presented.
Now, rather than the revaluation recommended by Sachar Committee being taken forward, Shiksha Sanskriti Uthan Nyas (SSUN) has demanded total change in education complete with new textbooks and a new pedagogy. RSS pracharak, Mr. Dinanath Batra of SSUN is reportedly going to meet the new PM to whom he has already sent his demands. After the political change there should be total revamp of education, he said. His recipe includes creation of a new mortal universe. Mr. Batra had played a vital role in bringing about a saffron-oriented kaleidoscopic change in education during the earlier NDA regime.
It’s time for the patriotic civil vigilante individuals and groups, the judiciary and the media to keep a close watch on how the matter proceeds and to intervene, insist and ensure that the textbooks not only reflect reality but also help in creating appropriate values in the child’s mind.
[DR SYED ZAFAR MAHMOOD is President, Zakat Foundation of India and was OSD on Sachar Committee.]