THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Even as the state government is going ahead with a comprehensive revision of school curriculum, the inadequate representation of teachers from the higher secondary sector in various committees constituted for the purpose has raised concerns over the efficacy of the exercise.
The section of teachers who have been kept away from the panels are mostly members of pro-Congress associations. Most of them had publicly pointed out the lacunae in the present curriculum and were highly critical of the manner in which the instruction is being carried out for Plus II students.
“The 32-member core committee and 26 focus groups for curriculum revision have been constituted in such a manner that dissenting voices are kept away from the decision-making process,” alleged Manoj S of Aided Higher Secondary Teachers’ Association. He alleged that excluding teachers with decades of classroom experience and subject expertise from the committees is aimed at carrying out curriculum reforms purely with political objectives.
Recently, the state had expressed its reservations over the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) dropping certain portions such as Gujarat riots and Mughal rule from its school textbooks. As many as 12 subjects in the state higher secondary course follow textbooks brought out by NCERT, and the state government plans to address the issue through the ongoing curriculum revision.
“The curriculum revision exercise is also aimed at reducing the dependence on NCERT textbooks for Plus II course and to bring out textbooks that are in tune with the state’s educational policy,” said a top official of the general education department.
However, a section of teachers have cautioned against totally sidelining NCERT textbooks that are relied even by Civil Services aspirants. “Such a move would only be counterproductive for students from our state when they compete in various national- level examinations,” cautioned Anil M George of Higher Secondary School Teachers’ Association.
Not enough experts?
A Right to Information (RTI) reply had revealed that even though the state higher secondary course has 38 subjects, the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT) that pilots the curriculum revision exercise, has research officers or subject experts only in 18 of them. It is true that there aren’t experts for a few rare subjects such as anthropology or Gandhian studies and a few foreign languages. But for all the main subjects, we do have research officers who are experts in their respective domains,” said Jayaprakash R K, SCERT director.