Govt textbooks for II PU arts, commerce from 2014-15

From the next academic year, II PU arts and commerce students will have textbooks prepared by the State government. Until now, the government only prescribed the syllabus, but not textbooks. The new textbooks would be compiled by the end of January.

The department of pre-university education (DPUE) prescribed textbooks for I PU arts and commerce in the present academic year (2013-14). Before that, students would refer to books by various authors in accordance with the DPUE-prescribed syllabus.
“The DPUE will be prescribing textbooks for arts and commerce courses for the first time,” said the DPUE Assistant Director, Ashok Kumar. The syllabus was previously revised in 2004-05.

Curriculum Framework

The new textbooks — for 30 subjects, including 11 languages — will be as per the National Curriculum Framework (NCF), 2005. The DPUE will prepare textbooks in Kannada as well as English to cater to students of both the media of instruction.

About 10 experts are involved in compiling each textbook. They have been on the job since August 2013 and are finalising the chapters at present.

Once the process is complete, the DPUE would invite tenders for printing the textbooks, which are expected to be ready before the academic year begins.

‘Not a replica of CBSE’

Last year, the government adopted NCERT textbooks for science course to bring students on a par with their CBSE peers. For commerce and arts, however, there will be a slight change. “The idea is to bring it on a par with the CBSE syllabus, no doubt.

But we will not straightaway take it from the NCERT. We are designing our own syllabus that will be of an equal standard,” Kumar added.

Teachers have struggled to adapt to the NCERT textbooks in the science stream this academic year as they themselves were not well-equipped. In addition, the syllabus was found to be “too vast”.

This will not be the case with arts and commerce textbooks, DPUE officials have assured. Each subject has to be taught for 120 hours and the syllabus will be framed to fit into this duration.

Vijayalakshmi, Principal of Government PU College, Jakkur, who is part of the committee framing the syllabus for political science, refused to divulge information about the proposed chapters but said the overall syllabus would be designed to help students crack competitive exams. “When students pass PU, they should be able to take entrance tests with ease.”