Tasked by the new HRD ministry to suggest whether they should continue with history books of the NDA tenure or replace them with new ones, a three-member panel of historians is looking at alternative textbooks brought out by Eklavya, a Madhya Pradesh-based education NGO, and also those published recently by Delhi government’s State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT). The three academics, Professors S Settar, J S Grewal and Barun De, arrived in New Delhi this morning and had a two-hour meeting with HRD additional secretary Sudip K Banerjee at Shastri Bhavan. They later examined the prescribed books at the India International Centre. The immediate decision they took was: old textbooks could not be taught the way they are; no reverting to textbooks which formed the curriculum before they were removed by former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi. Having taken these two decisions, the academics had quite a few alternatives to fall back upon. The most acceptable was to go through textbooks available in the market, brought out either by state government agencies like SCERTs or by private bodies, including NGOs like Eklavya. There was the other option of handing over teachers a set of guidelines whereby they could teach the existing set of books with suggested changes. But there was one difficulty with this option: the authors may not be ready to allow their books to be used in such a way and could well exercise the right to take the government to court. The third option which, though a little impractical, was to have textbooks written as early as possible according to guidelines laid down by these three historians. Sources said that none of these options have as yet been ruled out. If more importance is being given to the first option of identifying right alternative textbooks and then having them printed as early as possible, the question remains: will it not be a burden on parents and children to have the texts changed two months after the session has commenced? But then last year, NCERT textbooks were made available after half the academic year was over. This move might prove to be popular only if the government distributes the new books entirely free of cost. The experts will be ready with their recommendations ‘‘on what approach should be adopted by day after’’. But as HRD sources said the historians were not looking at the problem only with a short-term perspective. They have communicated to the ministry that after the first set of recommendations, they would again assemble in Delhi and look at the problem in a broad-based manner. One of the ideas gaining ground is that there should be reforms in NCERT and that it should be divested of its PSU-like role of publishing books in bulk. The NCERT should only bring out a model textbook and then private authors should be encouraged to write the most acceptable textbooks. Private competition is bound to encourage quality. That’s the view gaining ground among historians. Of course, it will be up to the state boards and SCERTs to choose the textbook they believe is most suitable. By not agreeing to revert to the books that had been dumped by Joshi, the three historians have not ceded ground to the Left. The Left has been demanding all along that current NCERT books be scrapped straight away and the old books be circulated among students.
