Karnataka government forms new committee to revise school textbooks in time for next academic year
The Hindu
Karnataka govt sets up 5 committees, 37 members, led by Prof. M.G. Hegade to revise school textbooks for next academic year. Objections raised by educationists as revision not as per NCFSE-2023 guidelines & committees not following social justice. Demand to form new committee to draft new textbooks.
The State government has set up five committees, including 37 members, led by M.G. Hegade to revise school textbooks in time for the next academic year.
The previous BJP regime had formed a committee led by Hindutva activist Rohith Chakratirtha to revise textbooks drafted by a committee led by writer Baragur Ramachandrappa. This exercise included lessons written by several Hindutva icons, including Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh founder K.B. Hedgewar, among other changes, that turned controversial.
Once the Congress came to power, with little time to completely revise textbooks for this academic year, it re-revised them to make some “corrections, additions, and deletions” under the guidance of Mr. Ramachandrappa again, promising to bring revised textbooks for the next academic year.
Now, the five committees — with Mr. Hegade, a retired professor at Rani Chennamma University, Belagavi, as their convener — will revise the textbooks again for the next academic year. Separate committees have been formed to revise first and second-language Kannada textbooks for classes I to X, and third-language Kannada textbooks for classes IX and X, and social science textbooks for classes VI to X.
Ritesh Kumar Singh, Principal Secretary of the Department of School Education and Literacy, said this was a “short exercise to revise the textbooks to make corrections” and the committees would submit their report in the next three months.
The order forming these five new committees says the revision has to be done as per the guidelines of the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and not the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE-2023) currently in force. Many educationists have argued that this will render the exercise “null and void”.
Development educationist Niranjan Aradhya V.P. said that unless the State government declares they have rejected the NCFSE-2023 like it has announced the decision to scrap the National Education Policy (NEP) - 2020, the 2023 framework would apply to textbooks.
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