NEW DELHI: Raising broader concerns over academic freedom after a controversy surrounding a now-removed NCERT Class 8 textbook chapter on the judiciary, academic Michel Danino on Wednesday said the Supreme Court orders in the matter could have a "chilling effect" on present and future textbook writers and may discourage innovation in school education.
A Padma Shri awardee, French-born Indian scholar Danino was the chairperson of the curricular group tasked with drafting social science textbooks for the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).
Danino was one of the three NCERT academics, the other two being Suparna Diwakar and Alok Prasanna Kumar, who were barred for life by the Supreme Court over a controversial chapter on judiciary in the Class 8 social science text book, before the top court modified its order and left it open to the Centre, states, Union territories, public universities and institutions to take an independent decision on the issue.
In an interview with PTI, Danino said several commentators, editorials and academics have used the phrase "chilling effect" while discussing the aftermath of the two Supreme Court orders passed on February 26 and March 11.
"What the Supreme Court bench has done will have a chilling effect on present and future textbook writers. They will not feel so free to innovate," Danino said, adding that "creativity and innovation are absolutely essential" if India wants to create a new generation of textbooks.
Referring to the promises made under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, Danino said the government had repeatedly spoken about bringing a "revolution" in school education, but such a transformation would not be possible if textbook writers were "scared at every single sentence of what objections people might raise".
"Let us hope that this chilling effect doesn't become permanent," he said.
Although the Supreme Court had observed in its earlier order that it did not want to infringe on academic freedom, "indirectly, the orders it passed will have an intimidating effect", the scholar claimed.
"And therefore, this is something that the academic community needs to discuss," he said, referring to protests and public statements by academics and commentators following the textbook controversy.
He also said that more than 50 academics from across the country had written to the president of India, raising their concerns on the issue.
Terming India's school education system excessively "textbook-centric", Danino said that continued dependence on textbooks in classrooms was having a "crippling effect on the minds of the students".
"Textbooks are not used in classrooms in many advanced countries. Textbooks are there only for supplementary reading at home," he said, recalling his own schooling in France during the 1960s.
"I cannot remember a single teacher in school asking us to bring textbooks to the classroom, or asking us to open the book on a certain page and then read it together," Danino said, adding that teachers instead came prepared with their own notes and material.
Danino argued that the real debate should not be merely about reducing the physical weight of school bags, but "how do we reduce the presence of textbooks in the classroom".
"For that, the number one challenge is how do we train the teachers in such a way that they do their own research, and prepare their own material," he said.
Danino acknowledged that such a transition would be difficult to achieve in India because "the average teacher is absolutely not ready for this", while school infrastructure in many cases remains "very poor".
He also pointed out that despite discussions around digital learning material, "more than half of our schools still do not have access to the internet".
Because of these limitations, he said, textbooks continue to remain the "sole instrument of teaching and learning" in many rural schools.
"This is a very unfortunate situation," he said, adding that unless India recognises this dependence on textbooks as a systemic problem, "we will not progress, and NEP 2020 will remain a distant dream".
