EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

More documents

Recommendations

Info

ing in fresh appointees. Meanwhile, several academics within the council alleged that the inquiry was a witch-hunt aimed at harassing outgoing NCERT director J.S. Rajput, who was accused of being close to former HRD minister M.M. Joshi. Rajput is accused of having implemented Joshi's saffron agenda when he ordered a complete revamp of the NCERT's national curriculum framework and textbooks under this syllabus. Scheduled to retire in July, he was not offered an extension. (Hindustan Times 22.6.04) 23 rd June NCERT panel set to make saffron books history (11) New Delhi: The three-member panel, constituted by the HRD ministry to review "saffron" history school books, met for the first time on Tuesday to hammer out "detoxification" options. The panel suggestions ranged from omission of "obvious objectionable" portions to looking at an open book market. The Left also pumped up pressure demanding withdrawal of existing textbooks, with historian Man Habib suggesting that fresh editions of older textbooks (by R S Sharma, Bipin Chandra, Satish Chandra and Arjun Dev) be immediately circulated among students. Prof S Settar, one of the three panelists, said reverting to old books was difficult as they had not been updated for a long time. "It would be going back to other extreme because these books are nearly 40 years old." As per the HRD ministry's brief, the panelists discussed the option of omitting objectionable passages from the existirig textbooks and providing alternative material to teachers. But they conceded that this approach may also be difficult as it would be impossible to ensure that teachers follow the panel's instruction and the child does not read controversial passages. There are six books written during Murli Manohar Joshi's tenure, which are in question. The panel meeting which will continue for another two days will do an extensive review of these books Settar said the search for alternative material for history textbooks was underway. "We've to examine how deeply textbooks have been affected and whether any prejudices have been projected. Charges and countercharges cannot be brushed aside easily," he said. (Times of India 23.6.04) Controversial text may be withdrawn (11) New Delhi, June 22: The three-member panel set up by the HRD ministry to review the controversial history text books are looking at ways to replace "objectionable portions, distortions and factual errors with historical facts." The historians were also considering withdrawing the controversial NCERT text books during the next academic session. The historians given charge by the HRD minister, Mr Arjun Singh, to "desaffronise" the textbooks are Prof S. Settar, a visiting professor, at the Bangalore based National Institute of Advances Studies and distinguished historian of ancient India, Prof Barun De, an expert on Modern India and Prof J.S. Grewal, former vice-chancellor of Gurur Nanak university. The historians, who reached Delhi on Tuesday morning had discussions over the textbooks throughout the day. The meeting of the historians would continue for a couple of days, before they come to any conclusion. However, there is no deadline set by the government as yet to come to a conclusion. The panel members also met the additional secretary, Mr Sudip Banerjee in Tuesday morning to discs the issue. Since withdrawal of text books, "might not be possible at this academic session," the members were looking at the possibility of removing the "saffronised version and factual errors." (Asian Age 23.6.04) 24 th June Scrap history textbooks: Students (11) NEW DELHI, JUNE 23. Protesting against "communal flavour" in the NCERT textbooks, a large number of students today demanded scrapping of the present history textbooks and even submitted a memorandum - signed by hundreds of students from across the country - to the NCERT textbook review committee now meeting here in the Capital. A delegation of students from Youth for Peace met the former Director of the Indian Institute of Advanced Studies at Shimla, J.S. Grewal - a member of the textbook review committee - to submit the memorandum. "History gives you a sense of identity and perspective. Students tend to imbibe whatever their textbooks say. But if students start imbibing this at a young age, then it will be difficult to change their perspective. The committee must scrap these books because not even one more batch of students should be subjected to this," said Moyna Manku, a student of History at Delhi's Gargi
College, at a press conference here. "I did Arts during my senior secondary. And I studied the previous syllabus. I know the difference between the present books and the earlier ones," she added. Pointing out faults in the present textbooks, Sahir Raza, who is now waiting to get admission to college, said: "There are so many factual errors in the booksrhat a book of errors has been printed by the Indian History Congress. And worst of all is the fact that they have tried to glorify someone like Hitler in these textbooks. The fact that Nathuram Godse assassinated Mahatma Gandhi has not been mentioned in the Class IX books. And since our questions papers are based on the same books, we have to learn such facts if we want to get good marks. Why do we have to study history that is incorrect?" (The Hindu 24.6.04) To spend promised funds, HRD looks at districts with SC, ST, Muslim numbers (11) NEW DELHI, JUNE 23: AS the HRD Ministry prepares to receive a massive influx of funds from the proposed education cess, it has begun identifying 250 districts where a large portion of this will be spent. Universities in some of these districts could be given sums upto Rs 5 crore — a massive jump from the maximum of Rs 75 lakh that they had been receiving from the Centre until now. The priority, official sources said, is to look for districts with a large Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe presence as well as those where a significant minority population has lagged behind in the education stakes. In some areas, for example, female literacy rates are less then 10 per cent. The net can then be extended to cover 250 districts. With the total number of districts in the country numbering around 600, more than 40 per cent would be receiving this educational support from the HRD Ministry. (Indian Express 24.6.04) 25 th June Withdrawal of controversial textbooks recommended (11) NEW DELHI, JUNE 24. The panel of three historians entrusted with the task of undertaking a "quick review" of the history books prepared by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) today recommended their withdrawal. But, given the problems involved in withdrawing the textbooks in the middle of the academic year, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry was guarded in its response to the recommendations made by the historians and has decided to monitor the situation before taking a final view. Though the panel had been asked by the Ministry to remove the distortions and communally-biased portions from the textbooks since their withdrawal was impractical in the middle of an academic year, the three historians were of the view that the errors and biases were far too many and frequent to be corrected. "It is not advisable to continue with these texts for even a year," said a member of the panel and former Chairman of the Indian Council of Historical Research, S. Settar. Having arrived at this conclusion after three days of discussion and close scrutiny of the texts, the historians have recommended that the history textbooks brought out by the NCERT since 2002 be replaced with available reading material which conform to the NCERT syllabus for this academic year. (The Hindu 25.6.04) 26 th June Move to bring madrassas into mainstream (11) New Delhi, June 25: SOCIAL SCIENTISTS and com mentators have long advocated modernisation of madrassas and their integration with the mainstream. The argument seems to have found buyers at last. On July 3, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will inaugurate a conference where clerics, religious leaders and educationists will discuss with government representatives ways to bring madrassa teaching at par with mainstream education systems. The 100-odd delegates will include representatives of all minority communities and political parties. Intellectuals of the calibre of Man Habib, Mushirul Hasan, Yashpal and Rafiq Zakaria have been invited. "We want to know if there's any way to give madrassa education recognition, so that its students can enter mainstream university courses. If the community desires, the government will help modernise madrassas so that they are able to meet university requirements," said a source. The government could help set up a board to conduct centralised madrassa exams, sources said. West Bengal, UP and Bihar have Madrassa Boards, but most madrassas conduct their own exams. In the absence of fixed standards, only a few universities like Jamia, Agra or AMU take in madrassa students — that too mostly only in language or reli-
Page 1 and 2: EDUCATION - 2004 Compiled & Edited
Page 3 and 4: GUWAHATI, FEB. 4. The Axom Sarba Si
Page 5 and 6: Anger against profound illiteracy (
Page 7 and 8: The Central officials brought up a
Page 9 and 10: 8 th April 20% reservation likely i
Page 11 and 12: HRD minister Murli Manohar Joshi no
Page 13 and 14: Secondary Education, the Union Publ
Page 15 and 16: New Delhi, May 22: The new human re
Page 17 and 18: y his ministry "which puts the stud
Page 19 and 20: NEW DELHI, JUNE 1. The Bharatiya Ja
Page 21 and 22: agree with. "These books were not w
Page 23: handing over higher education to ma
Page 27 and 28: CABE, somewhat smaller in size had
Page 29 and 30: 'History of India can't be history
Page 31 and 32: Another TN school catches fire, non
Page 33 and 34: anch of a nationalised bank to that
Page 35 and 36: 11. The notices were issued after h
Page 37 and 38: the situation is the same in almost
Page 39 and 40: A.P.J. Abdul Kalam has sought corpo
Page 41 and 42: transparent manner," the release ad
Page 43 and 44: anners inviting applications for ad
Page 45 and 46: shades of saffron and ask the autho
Page 47 and 48: function in his hometown of Vadnaga
Page 49 and 50: egarding minority education in the
Page 51 and 52: The evaluators compared learning le
Page 53 and 54: 9 th Nov. India again gets red grad
Page 55 and 56: other Central government institutes
Page 57 and 58: she added. According to sources, ex
Page 59: Bill on panel for minority bodies p

EDUCATION - 2004 - Indian Social Institute

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?