Education

WITHDRAW 'TOXIC' TEXT BOOKS

NEW DELHI : The panel of three historians entrusted with the task of undertaking a ‘quick review’ of the history books prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on 24 June recommended their withdrawal.

Though the panel had been asked by the Ministry to remove the distortions and communally-biased portions from the textbooks since their withdrawal was impractical in the middle of an academic year, the three historians were of the view that the errors and biases were too many and frequent to be corrected. "It is not advisable to continue with these texts for even a year," said a member of the panel and former Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, Shri S. Settar.

Having arrived at this conclusion after three days of discussion and close scrutiny of the texts, the historians have recommended that the history textbooks brought out by the NCERT since 2002 be replaced with available reading material which conform to the NCERT syllabus for this academic year.

Prof. Settar did not rule out the possibility of the panel suggesting some of the earlier textbooks that had been replaced by the NCERT in 2002 as reading material.

While asking Prof. Settar, Prof. De and the former Director at the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla, Shri J.S. Grewal, to undertake the review, the Ministry had ruled withdrawing the books this year. The Ministry had asked the panel to do a ‘quick review’ and suggest what needs to be done in the short term. "If they so recommend, the Government will direct the NCERT and the Central Board of Secondary Education to issue appropriate directions to the teachers to transact the curriculum as per those recommendations."

Ensure Girl Education: Arjun Singh

NEW DELHI : The Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Arjun Singh on 5 July announced that a special unit will be set-up to deal with minority education, especially girls. Shri Arjun Singh said his ministry would do an additional bit for girl education among minorities.

Concerned over lakhs of children still out of school, HRD Minister Arjun Singh has sought the cooperation of chief ministers for launching mobilization drives in states to achieve India’s dream of educating every child.

"With free and compulsory education becoming a fundamental right for all children in the age group of 6-14 years, it becomes our moral responsibility but also a Constitutional mandate", he said in a letter to chief ministers seeking in enrolling children in schools.

"With schools reopening after the summer vacations, it would be an ideal time to launch mobilization drives to get these children to school," Shri Singh said. He asked the Chief Ministers to issue specific directions to officials to take up enrolment with partnership with NGOs and members of the society. "I know this task if formidable, but if you make this goal as a personal mission, then the entire state machinery will be motivated to take up the task in full earnest."

Foreign Investment Welcomed: Arjun Singh

LONDON (U.K.): The Indian Government is not averse to accepting foreign investment in elementary education, the Human Resource Development Minister, Shri Arjun Singh, said on 24 June. Asked by Karan Thapar in an interview on BBC World whether the Government would be willing to accept foreign investment in elementary education, he said "well, for that we can evolve a policy. "At the moment, there is none. But we can certainly evolve a policy because once we have a reform regime, I don’t see any difficulty. But the policy has to be formulated first."

Asked if foreign investment, even in elementary education, will be worked out, Shri Singh said "absolutely." To a question if he does not refuse foreign investment and has an "open mind," he replied "absolutely". Asked how he would handle the "howls of protest" from the Left, the Minister said "there won’t be any protest … I think everyone will see the practical side of it also …"

The Minister said that taking education to the top of the political agenda would be his "sole objective."