The new curriculum sought to overcome the visual baggage of old textbooks. Today, India debates whether or not cartoons should be included in school textbooks. Such debates are welcome to improve our understanding of school education in general, and textbooks in particular. But before the review committee throws all cartoons out of the school tub, it would help to understand a few facets of textbook preparation, especially the selection of visuals. Locating...
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Prashant Bhushan calls PM shikhandi, says Congress using him as shield
-The Times of India In a concerted strategy to hit at PM Manmohan Singh, just days after it leveled charges of corruption against top Cabinet ministers, Team Anna member Prashant Bhushan said the PM was like 'Shikhandi' and was being used by Congress as a shield. Bhushan on Monday slammed Singh for defending the UPA government on corruption charges. "The Congress is using the PM as a shield like 'Shikhandi'. They say...
More »High Court issues notices to Centre on PIL against petrol price hike
-MoneyLife.in Citing lack of uniformity in the prices of petrol, the petitioner said that in Thane, the price per litre is Rs81.70, while it is as low as Rs58.06 in Port Blair, Rs81.75 per litre in Bengaluru and Rs73.18 in Delhi The Bombay High Court on Monday issued notices to Centre, Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and Finance Secretary, besides three oil marketing companies on a public interest litigation (PIL), which...
More »High internet penetration leading to addiction in city-Rosemary Antony
Gurgaon, with 20.9% household internet penetration, scored better than IT hubs like Bangalore and Hyderabad in Census 2011. But high internet use is leading to increase in the number of internet addicts in the city. Addictions have always been associated with substance abuse that alters the chemical balance of the brain. Recent research shows that one can even experience a high, from excessive use of the internet. Internet addicts experience a...
More »Politics and Pedagogy The NCERT Texts and Cartoons by Valerian Rodrigues
School texts that teach young minds that politics is a contentious and critical but reasonable activity, that it is not merely a set of demands and commands, and that politicians have to be responsive and accountable are naturally disliked by the political class. This is the tone of all the Political Science textbooks of Standards IX-XI brought out after 2006. The nurturing of a culture of critical public opinion seems...
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