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LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Bengal rejects text watchdog plan by Basant Kumar Mohanty

Bengal rejects text watchdog plan by Basant Kumar Mohanty

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published Published on Nov 29, 2010   modified Modified on Nov 29, 2010

Bengal is among three states that have opposed a human resource development ministry proposal to set up a national watchdog to monitor school textbooks adopted by education boards.

The other two dissenting states are Gujarat and Orissa. Fourteen states and Union territories have supported the idea, though.

The ministry had sought the opinion of the states and the Union territories on the proposal to set up a National Textbook Council (NTC) that would monitor the quality of textbooks adopted by different school boards. The proposed council would see that textbooks do not carry undesirable content and are in sync with the secular values enshrined in the Constitution.

The proposal was mooted in 2005 by a committee of the Central Advisory Board of Education, an advisory council that has all state education ministers as its members.

The committee had stated that it had found “communal propaganda, gender and caste bias in textbooks” prescribed by certain state governments for non-CBSE affiliated schools.

In its response to the HRD ministry, the Bengal government said the proposal for the textbook watchdog was not convincing. It suggested the strengthening of the National Council of Educational Research and Training and the State Council of Educational Research and Training to take care of the additional responsibility of monitoring school textbooks.

The Gujarat government said the creation of such a panel was the prerogative of the state government. Setting up a national watchdog on textbooks was likely to be led by value judgement of a few people, it said.

The Orissa government’s reply was on similar lines. It said setting up the textbook council could lead to centralisation of authority on textbook development. This would prove detrimental to the fostering of creativity and promotion of local and culture-specific content.

Some states have suggested more state representation on the proposed council.

Assam, Goa, Haryana, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Arunachal Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Daman and Diu, Delhi, Lakshdweep and Puducherry have supported the proposal.

“We are yet to get the response of the remaining states. Once we get the feedback from all the states, the ministry will take a view on how the NTC should be set up and what would be its composition,” a ministry official said.

Former UGC chairman and educationist professor Yashpal said there was a need for such a regulator as there have been complaints against quality of textbooks adopted by “private schools” as well as government schools in certain states.


The Telegraph, 29 November, 2010, http://www.telegraphindia.com/1101129/jsp/nation/story_13234395.jsp


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