NCERT panel head defends ‘broad survey' approach in new social science textbooks

Indian Express

2 days ago

The new NCERT social science textbooks for classes 6 to 8 provide a 'broad survey' of Indian civilisation from prehistoric times to Independence, and an 'in-depth, detailed treatment of any period of India's history is not only impossible, but undesirable,' according to Michel Danino, chairperson of the NCERT's curricular area group for the new social science textbooks.
'Were it to be attempted, we would be falling back into the old pitfall of burdening students with loads of data that they simply cannot digest or relate to, and end up resenting,' Danino, a guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar, wrote in a note that responds to the recent criticism of the new social science books. Last week, NCERT released part 1 of the social science textbook for class 8.
Pointing out that his note represents his personal opinion, Danino wrote that the rationale for these books providing only a broad survey is that 'a number of school students drop out at the end of class 8, and should be exposed to such an overview before leaving school.'
However, he added that a 'survey' need not be superficial and 'it has been our attempt to touch upon key figures, events, concepts, developments etc., which we would like students to remember all their lives.'
Referring to a new approach to the syllabus and textbooks in the context of the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023, Danino wrote that this new foundation for school education has formulated new pedagogical approaches, new classroom transactions and a reduced syllabus. The new approach focuses on essential principles, concepts, events, and developments, 'moving away from data-heavy, supposedly 'comprehensive' textbooks that only promoted rote-learning,' he wrote.
On recent references to 'omissions' from these textbooks, including that of the Paika rebellion of Odisha's Khurda region against British rule in the 19th century, Danino wrote that no chapters have been 'added' or 'omitted' since 'the whole basis is different.'
The new social science textbooks cover history, geography, political science, and economics in one book, unlike in earlier years when there were different books for these themes. '…each new textbook has combined in a single volume what was earlier dealt with in four. This alone testifies to our concern for content reduction, as mandated by the NEP 2020,' Danino wrote.
Listing 23 rebellions against British colonial rule, relevant to the period that the class 8 textbook's chapter covers, Danino pointed out that only six of these rebellions figure in part 1 of the textbook.
'Keeping the student in mind, we selected them as sufficiently representative, in our view, of the growing discontent among Indian populations against colonial rule. We must now ask our critics the following questions: who is to decide which of these uprisings and rebellions are major and which are minor? Should people of the states or clans mentioned in the 17 rebellions (and many more) not covered in this chapter start protesting that they are hurt by the 'omission' of those particular rebellions?' Danino wrote.