Textbook Content of India’s Schools Needs A Rethink

The Principal of a Primary School Udaan in Palampur district of Himachal Pradesh, Rinku Dutta said that they don’t use textbooks for educating kids.

She further added that it is designed as an experiential learning space, where school teachers work as facilitators for enabling and supporting a child in her learning journey, rather than trying to teach her. She gave a tour of the minimalist mud structure of the school and its beautiful eco-friendly campus. It may sound very revolutionary to have no-textbook method of teaching and experiential learning space, but there are so many educationists who believe that this is a high time when India must initiate thinking afresh about the education system of the country especially the State-supported one. India also needs to focus on its quality because the existing system is failing to improve the learning level of students.

The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) takes stock of the different levels of learning of primary school children in State-run schools of India. This reveals the depth of the learning crisis in India. The report of 2018 represents that students, especially those in elementary school (Classes 1-8), are not learning enough. One-half of all students to cite one metric (50.3%) in 5th class can read texts meant for 2nd class students. The report also added that learning deficits seen in the elementary school in previous years seem to carry forward as young people go from being adolescents to young adults.

The various reasons behind such a disastrous report card, year after year, are not very hard and difficult to pinpoint. This lack of quality textbooks (not all states/schools use National Council of Educational Research and Training — NCERT — textbooks), and delays in making them reach all students, especially in the far-flung areas; the politicisation of syllabi; the lack of basic infrastructure in schools; and, less trained or untrained and overworked teachers, to name a few.

In addition to all these problems, there is also a rising acceptance that our State-run schools, where first generation learners scores go, carrying the hope of their parents that education they are getting will provide them a better and improved life in the future, have become delinked from the local community they serve. Also, the textbooks they use don’t really showcase the local culture and social environment of the children. This is making it very difficult for these young learners to relate to them. Educationists feel very strongly that these shortcomings are affecting the learning capabilities of students.

By: Preeti Narula

Content: https://www.hindustantimes.com/analysis/india-s-school-textbook-content-needs-a-rethink/story-gzXBtzQCuL5Yxs0F0Ka6JM.html