NEW DELHI: A government-appointed panel has found serious deficiencies and flaws in textbooks for primary-level suggested by the state boards, holding the authors of such books responsible for the future of students. The panel said that most authors write a book for only earning money. They hardly care about the capabilities and interests of the students.
The authors “steal” a paragraph from one book and another from another book. They have lost the spirit of originality in “competition for the number in the market”. Except a few, the panel observed that the rest are of low standard.
Not only that, the get up, the paper, the printing etc. are all below the standard. The method of treatment of the subject matter and the flow of language too is faulty, the panel said while making recommendation. The observations by the panel set up by NCERT were made while evaluating the Mathematics, English and Hindi textbooks published and followed by schools under the Bihar government.
It evaluated the content, clarity of the concepts, appropriateness of illustrations and pictures, and quality of questioning pattern etc. along-with the overall aspects. The review comes amid growing criticism over the dwindling standard of education in the country. Various government reports have highlighted how students of class V are unable to solve class III math problem. The annual status of education report 2014-15 have revealed that class V students have difficulty framing a simple sentence in English, let alone understand the subjects properly. In most school subjects, there is a proliferation of low quality substandard and badly produced books.
“The author should be a man of repute, well-qualified and experienced as he/she has to understand the learning capabilities and difficulties of the pupils,” the panel said. The suggestions assume significance as most state boards lack comprehensive guidelines for the content of the textbooks.
Since textbook is essential for both teachers and students, there is a need for giving the right kind of book to both of them, the panel said. In the primary classes, the need of a textbook is felt all the more because the students are immature. Textbook should contain illustrations, charts, pictures to engage the students.
The recommendations of the panel also include unbiased content in textbook without incorporating anything which injures the feelings of any community, caste or religion. The author should abstain from thrusting his/her personal view, it said.