Syllabus change renders old textbooks worthless
Every change comes at a cost. And for starters, the price the State government is paying for implementing the change in class five and eight syllabi is Rs 15 crore.
That is the total worth of the textbooks the government will have to dump to implement the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) recommendation for a central syllabus.
The recommendation was approved at the State Cabinet meeting on January 3 and tenders will soon be called for the printing of new textbooks. But what happens to the textbooks lying in several godowns belonging to the Education department?
The NCERT recommendation did not come out of the blue. The proposal to introduce a uniform central syllabus has been in the pipeline for several years now and the Centre had given a clear direction to the state governments that a uniform syllabus will be introduced from the next academic year to improve the quality of education.
In spite of this, the State government seems to have printed textbooks far beyond the required amount.
This only goes on to expose the lack of foresight on the part of the State’s Education department. A deputy director of public instruction on condition of anonymity said at least 30,000 textbooks are lying unused in each district of the State.
“Since we have to get new textbooks printed for the next academic year, we will continue to store the old textbooks in the godown until we get an instruction from the Education department,” the official said.a
The department may distribute the textbooks to school librabries. So the books will not go waste. It is up to the students and schools to utilise them, the official added.
