NEW DELHI: It is time to stop blaming 'Macaulay' for the ills of Indian education system, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said today while underlining the positives of teachers reviewing syllabi instead of expert committees.
Interacting with teachers of private schools, Sisodia said that expert committees are generally made up of "leftists, rightists and centrists", who he said cannot sit together and work. Teachers are the most capable in this respect, he said.
"We have been listening Macaulay did this and that. It's been 65 years since independence, come out of Macaulay now. How long will you abuse Macaulay? Make your own policy now," he said.
Sisodia said after Delhi government invited suggestions from teachers to reduce syllabi by 25 per cent and nearly 40,000 inputs have been received. It's a first of its kind experiment in education history, he said.
Students up to class eight studying in Delhi government schools will get a relief from carrying heavy bags to schools as the government has decided to reduce the syllabus by 25 per cent from October onwards.
"Few of my associates had asked me to form expert committees. Then I came to know people are leftists, rightists, centrists in those committees. How will they sit together and frame syllabus? Only teachers are capable to do that as they teach the students through the year," he said.
Sisodia, who is also the Delhi Education minister, said it was also necessary to critically consider the otherwise relevant parts of the existing syllabus.
"The irrelevant parts will anyway be removed. We will focus on the relevant part of the syllabus as well. We need to check whether they are merely for informative purposes or for actual learning as lessons needed for survival will have to taught in a different way," he said.
He said not considering each and every word being taught to students was crucial. "Otherwise we are doing a crime with the next generation."
He said the government will publish the names of all those providing inputs saying that there could not be a better exercise than the one where 40,000 to 50,000 teachers are involved. "Teachers are the real education experts".
"We have to prepare students for the technological era they are growing up in. Informative parts can be taught by teaching him to use google. Mobiles and education have to be integrated," he said.