BENGALURU: The Karnataka Textbook Society on Tuesday released a report on changes made to textbooks for classes 1-10 for the year 2024-25. The notification came late in the evening without the officials making a big announcement.
The textbook revision committee formed by the government was led by Manjunath Hegde, a retired professor of history, who made several changes in the syllabus following the National Curriculum Framework-2005. At the onset, more emphasis has been given to Kannada literature with a focus on cultural leaders from the state and works by Jnanpith awardees have also been included for classes 8-10.
The notification highlighted that the revision was carried out keeping in mind only the educational interests of the students without changing the basic framework of the revised textbooks. All the requests made by various organisations, individuals and government departments regarding inclusion and omission have been reviewed and appropriate suggestions were considered, it stated.
To reduce the burden on students due to the weight of textbooks, the education department previously also passed an order to divide textbooks into two parts. Appropriate context of the contents has been given in both sections. As per the release, social science textbooks have been revised keeping in mind the Constitution, gender sensitivity, information on child rights and democratic and secular values of the country.
For political science books, new developments such as the Women’s Reservation Bill, India’s international relations and information on local bodies in the legislative system have been added. Several minor changes have been made in titles and various chapters: ‘Religions’ have been changed to ‘Dharmas’, and more information was added to the Sanatan Dharma chapter. According to the relevant content, maps, taluk and district-related figures have also been updated.
The revision included Kannada language textbooks for both first and second languages for classes 1-10, third language Kannada textbooks for classes 9-10 and social science textbooks spanning classes 6-10.