Summary
Contents
Subject index
This book is a first of its kind that locates the teaching and learning of social science within the larger perspective of education and its aims. It presents major debates and critical perspectives on social science pedagogy, curriculum design, and textbook writing. It emphasizes the need to bring the teaching of social science into the realm of pedagogical theory – beyond the confines of ideological debate. The social science curriculum of Eklavya - a non-profit, non-government organization that develops and field tests innovative educational programs and trains resource people to implement these programs through a network of education resource centers located in Madhya Pradesh, India – is reviewed by a team of professionals from various disciplines within the social sciences, education, and communication.
Epilogue
This review and documentation of the social science programme began in 1996 and the draft report was presented at a national seminar in 2001. Much water has flown down the Narmada since then. The government of Madhya Pradesh terminated its integral association with the programme in August 2002 by withdrawing the permission that prescribed it as a formal curriculum in select state schools. Almost simultaneously, several government agencies from different states invited Eklavya to assist in developing social science textbooks for them. Some states have independently used Eklavya text materials as resources and exemplars to develop social science textbooks. Since its formal closure, Eklavya has been working with schools and teachers committed to innovation across the state. In this epilogue, the growth of the programme of Eklavya in the past decade will be discussed briefly.
A Proposal for Expansion
In 1999, Eklavya had begun discussions with the state government for expanding the social science programme within the state of Madhya Pradesh. The SCERT suggested that the matter be placed before the Standing Committee for Textbooks—a statutory body set up by the government of Madhya Pradesh to approve state textbooks. The committee in its meeting in July 1999 arrived at the understanding that the matter did not come under its purview. It nevertheless recommended that the state government undertake an evaluation of the programme before implementing it on a large scale.
By then, Eklavya had completed a preliminary report of the review of the programme with the help of several scholars. The review report was submitted to the government along with a formal proposal for a scale-up of the programme in December 1999. The then director of the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission, who was also education secretary to the government of Madhya Pradesh advised Eklavya to seek endorsement of its proposal from local bodies such as the Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRI) and District Governments in the light of an effort towards decentralization and devolution of powers to these bodies.
Eklavya began a process of intense consultations and involvement at the local level to introduce the programme to a cross section of people. Copies of the textbooks were distributed to middle schools and schoolteachers were invited to review them and suggest improvements. Several meetings were held with teachers on the issue. Likewise, district level meetings were held with the intelligentsia, the MLAs and PRI functionaries. The Eklavya textbooks were discussed at great length and a large number of people suggested concrete changes and improvements while also sharing specific reservations. However, most of them welcomed the idea of soliciting the opinion of the people of the district and implementing the Eklavya texts as they viewed them to be children-friendly.
In May 2000, Eklavya persuaded the District Education Officer (DEO) to set up an advisory committee including school and college teachers to review the textbooks. This committee began its work but was wound up after two meetings as the DEO failed to get a clearance for it from the SCERT.
In February 2001 Eklavya submitted its proposal for scale-up of the social science programme to the Director, SCERT along with a report of processes undertaken at the district level. The highlight of this proposal was the incorporation of specific roles for the district bodies and the PRIs in the implementation of the programme. It was suggested that the state government implement the programme for a fixed period of five years; an academic advisory committee of teachers, intellectuals, parents and people's representatives be set up to advice on all academic matters; and the district government review the programme every year and at the end of the five-year period. This review was to become the basis on which decisions were to be taken about the continuation of the programme in a given district.
The response of the government of Madhya Pradesh to this proposal was lukewarm. The secretary to the chief minister felt that curricular matters were the prerogative of the state government and therefore PRIs or even local MLAs cannot play a definitive role. He declared that the state government would prefer to conduct an external and comparative evaluation of the programme before taking any further decision in the matter.
Despite repeated reminders, however, such an evaluation was never instituted. Eklavya's proposal for an expansion of the programme thus got shelved permanently.
Closure of the Programme
In February 2002, at the instance of Dr Sitasaran Sharma, a Bharatiya Janata Party Member of Legislative Assembly (who was also his party's chief whip in the Assembly and an invitee to the meeting of the District Planning Committee), the District Planning Council of Hoshangabad passed a resolution recommending the closure of the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Progamme. A keen debate followed lasting several months in which students, teachers, scientists, educationists and politicians participated. The state government in its wisdom decided to accept this recommendation and eventually passed an official order closing down the science programme of Eklavya in July 2002.
Meanwhile the MLA, Dr Sharma, made it clear that he was keen to see the social science programme close down as well. In his view the programme promoted ideas that were questionable. Before taking this step, about two years ago he had been given the Eklavya textbooks and was invited to attend meetings held to review the texts as part of the public contact programme. Although he never attended any public meetings, whenever Eklavya members met him in his office, he took the opportunity to seek clarifications on some of the objections he raised about text content. For example, he objected to the name of a character in a story, Aftab, asserting that this gives the ‘impression that all farmers of this district are Muslims’. When it was clarified that the name Aftab in the text referred to a trader who sells locks in local markets, he readily withdrew his objection. Around the same time another BJP MLA raised questions in the State Assembly with regard to the mention of animal sacrifices in the Vedic period and the origin of Aryans in the history texts. These questions were replied very adeptly by the then Education Minister, Shri Mahendra Singh Baudh. Nevertheless, soon after the closure of the Hoshangabad Science Programme in July 2002, Dr Sharma raised the matter of the social science programme with the Madhya Pradesh Textbook Corporation through a formal written communication. His letter raised three main issues:
- Pointing certain factual errors in the texts mainly in the nature of dated information in the civics section.
- Questioning the veracity of certain sections of the history texts, such as Vedic animal sacrifices and the Central Asian origins of the Indo Aryans; what he considered the downplaying of the contribution of the Vedic Aryans to science and medicine and the playing up of Buddhist influences.
- Including in the civics texts, undesirable values and perspectives such as discussing the functioning of the caste system and the prevalence of caste discrimination in historical times and demonstrating protests by the people of a town against an ineffective municipality in the civics texts.
Dr Sharma seemed to be particularly peeved by the last point. He wrote:
What is the objective behind painting a negative picture of the government and administration in the innocent minds of class VI students? Do these books want to fill anti-government feelings in the minds from the very childhood? Reference to the equation of votes seems very unjustifiable.
This last reference pointed to the story wherein one of the protestors' states that municipal members and MLAs have been elected by popular vote and if they do not solve people's problems they will not get any votes in the next election.
These questions were forwarded to Eklavya and Eklavya was expected to explain this ‘objectionable’ treatment of the texts, which it did. At the same time the Shiksha Mission sent a list of questions to the Hoshangabad District Education Officer asking for clarifications on the civics sections of the Eklavya textbook for Class VI, and interestingly many of the questions sent by the Mission were similar to those asked by the MLA. Eklavya supplied the answers to the DEO. The sustained campaign of Dr Sharma bore fruit and the Director of the Rajiv Gandhi Shiksha Mission formally ordered the closure of the programme in August 2002, a good two months after the school academic session was well underway. The reason given was that the state government had decided to follow a policy of having uniform textbooks across the schools of the entire state of Madhya Pradesh. The schools were however permitted to use the Eklavya textbooks as supplementary reading materials if they so desired.
Working with Interested Teachers
It was amply clear in 2001 itself, that the state government was dragging its feet regarding their thinking on Eklavya's proposal of scaling-up the programme in Madhya Pradesh. This prompted Eklavya to seek the participation of interested teachers in taking forward the vision and practice of hands-on teaching of science and social science in their schools. Formal communication was established with schools seeking the participation of those who wished to attend workhshops on innovative social science teaching. Interested applicants were invited to a workshop organized by Eklavya and the state education department gave them the required permission. Subsequently Eklavya organized such workshops every year. In addition, monthly meetings were held with teachers in about six centres spread over five districts. Over a hundred teachers had been attending these programmes. The meetings and training sessions focused on enhancing the understanding of the teachers on content areas as well as on providing them with ideas for improving their teaching in the classrooms. These meetings became forums for teachers to voice their academic concerns and enrich their understanding of subject-matter. Eklavya has been regularly reviewing the effectiveness and the long term sustainability of these forums and exploring various strategies to build a stable programme of teacher development.
Textbook Writing in the States
The District Primary Education Programme of the mid-1990s made attempts to transform the teaching and learning process through pedagogic renewal and developing school textbooks across different states. As the work on primary school textbooks came to a closure, many states felt the need to engage with the creation of middle level texts that would be in consonance with the new primary school books. Thus a spate of textbook rewriting commenced in the late 1990s in several states, beginning with Lok Jumbish in Rajasthan.
The Lok Jumbish Experience
In 1996, the Lok Jumbish Parishad invited Eklavya to facilitate the development of its social science and science textbooks for middle schools along the lines of the Madhya Pradesh textbooks. After a series of debates on the question of simply ‘implementing’ its books in a new state, Eklavya decided to build a resource group based in Rajasthan and to collaborate with it to develop texts contextually appropriate for Rajasthan.
Eklavya adopted a twofold strategy in this regard. First, it consulted NGOs already working in curriculum development in Rajasthan. These were: Sandhan, an organization with experience of work with the Shikshakarmi project and Lok Jumbish; Vidya Bhawan and Sewa Mandir, engaged in development and education for several years. Eklavya solicited the cooperation of Sandhan and Vidya Bhawan to provide infrastructural support as well as collaborate in the endeavour.
Second, Eklavya established contact with universities and research institutions such as the social science departments of Rajasthan University, Mohanlal Sukhadia University, Maharishi Dayanand University in Ajmer, the Regional Institute of Education, Ajmer, the Institute of Development Studies and the Marudhara Academy. Scholars from these institutions and the NGOs provided rich academic inputs to the programme. They helped Eklavya to adapt the original textbooks to the socio-political and cultural context of Rajasthan; provided primary research materials to develop chapters and joined Eklavya in surveys and field visits (1998, 1999). Above all they brought new perspectives to the teaching of social sciences in Rajasthan.
It was suggested that unlike the Eklavya textbooks which were focused on select geographical parts of Madhya Pradesh, the books for Lok Jumbish should relate to the entire state of Rajasthan. In geography, this meant taking the entire range of Rajasthan figuratively termed Maru-Meru-Mal. This meant that Eklavya had to introduce a chapter on the theme of desert villages as part of its series of village studies in Class VI geography. They also suggested including themes of relevance like the revival of the Arvari Nadi by the Tarun Bharat Sangh.
Rajasthan being the site of major regional state formation and the emergence of a syncretic culture in the medieval period, her historians helped to revise some of the Eklavya team's notions relating to these themes and their treatment in the textbooks. Friends from Sandhan helped in understanding the agrarian social structure, the rural marketing system, the Panchayati Raj Institutions in Rajasthan as well as the peculiarities of Rajasthan industry.
These books were implemented in about 55 schools in the Pisangan block of Ajmer district. This meant several rounds of teacher training, systems of follow-up and monthly meetings with teachers and Lok Jumbish field workers. This gave Eklavya an opportunity to systematize its teacher training package as the team worked with a much larger number of teachers for the first time.
Lok Jumbish began to run into problems in 1998. The Swedish International Development Agency (SIDA) that was funding Lok Jumbish suspended financial grant to it, following the testing of the nuclear bomb in Pokhran. Elections to the state assembly brought the Congress party to power. The new authorities sought to bring about radical changes in the perspective and programme of Lok Jumbish bringing it under the control of the state education department. As part of this process, the arrangement with Eklavya was terminated on the plea that the books produced by Eklavya were plagiarized from those produced for Madhya Pradesh! Even though Eklavya had begun work on the Grade VIII textbook it had to be suspended and the SCERT of Rajasthan was commissioned to produce the Grade VIII textbook. This new book had no relation whatsoever with the Grade VI and VII books. Thus ended Eklavya's collaboration with the Lok Jumbish Project.
Madhya Pradesh SCERT
In the late 1990s, the Madhya Pradesh SCERT invited Eklayva to help develop the social science textbooks for middle schools. Members of the team participated in a few workshops and offered to help the SCERT. The SCERT included some of the schoolteachers associated with Eklavya in the writer's committee. Although the impact of their efforts can be seen in the texts that were produced, the innovative thinking remains restricted to select chapters. The texts attempt to address the learner in many chapters and devices like stories are used intermittently.
Assam
In 2001, Eklavya began supporting the efforts of the Assam government in mobilizing and orienting a team of resource persons at the state level. A new perspective of the curriculum was evolved and textbooks for Grade V were developed (2003) using many new approaches such as case studies, field surveys, study of original source materials, stories, comparative studies and activities. This work continued till 2003, when a change of personnel in the government was followed by a tapering-off of the involvement of Eklavya.
Uttar Pradesh
The new social science textbooks of Uttar Pradesh (published in 2003) have drawn in various ways from the Eklavya textbooks and acknowledged the use of the books as reference material. A large number of chapters from the Eklavya textbooks were used with minor changes. However, Eklavya had no knowledge of this process till the team members accidentally came across these books in mid-2004.
Delhi SCERT
Delhi SCERT began preparing new textbooks for all classes in 2003. Several resources persons who had also helped Eklavya were part of the core team that prepared and edited the social science textbooks for Delhi SCERT. The textbooks reflect clearly the influence of Eklavya's work and a creative use of its experiences especially in the history and civics sections. These books in effect provide an alternative and a counter point to Eklavya's work.
Chattissgarh SCERT
Chattissgarh separated from Madhya Pradesh in 2000 to form a new state. Soon after, the government of Chattissgarh invited Eklavya, among others, to help develop the curriculum and textbooks for the state. They were especially keen to contextualize the textbooks to the state of Chattissgarh. Eklavya teamed up with Vidya Bhawan and Digantar to participate in this project in collaboration with the SCERT of Chhatissgarh. The latter set up a textbook team consisting of about 25 persons who were vested with the responsibility of drafting the curriculum and preparing the new textbooks for all grades.
Eklavya has been working closely with this team in building up its experiences in both academic and technical aspects of textbook preparation. Eklavya helped to augment the group with resource persons from the universities, colleges and NGOs of Chattissgarh. However, all decisions pertaining to what goes into the textbooks remain with the SCERT writer's team. Features of Eklavya textbooks, which the team considered acceptable, have found their way into the new textbooks. The new textbooks have been implemented in four blocks in different geographic regions of the state. Teachers have been trained by a collaborative team of Eklavya, scholars from the local colleges and the SCERT faculty. The process of collecting feedback on the trial books and using that to develop textbooks for all the schools of the state of Chhatissgarh was completed and the textbooks are being used in all state schools. Meanwhile, a Resource Centre has been set up in Raipur under the Eklavya Foundation in collaboration with Vidya Bhawan and Digantar from Rajasthan to carry forward sustained work with the SCERT and DIETs of the state.
NCERT
The Eklavya team was invited to contribute to the textbook writing work in social sciences for Grades VI to XII. From 2005 to 2008, the team has worked on a number of committees and contributed to the review, writing and editing of the new textbooks, initiated and produced by the NCERT.
Research and Material Development
Issues emerging out of the textbook work have been taken up for research studies by members of the team. A study on the learning of concepts in physical geography has been conducted. It is being finalized and prepared for publication. Another study on children's perception of government structures has been conducted and published by Eklavya (George, 2007).
The textbook work also threw up the need for developing new learning materials. Many schools specially the private schools have been interested in using selected chapters as resource materials instead of the entire textbook. Eklavya has published a number of thematic chapters from the textbooks as modules.
Another such need was to create an atlas for beginners in map-reading. A project to prepare and publish such an atlas is underway. A series of modules on map-reading is also being planned. Similarly efforts have been made to prepare a module on communalism and the partition of India. A draft of the module has been made and used for teachers' workshops.
Eklavya has also worked to develop the course content of the optional paper on pedagogy of social sciences in the Collaborative Programme of M.A. in Education (at TISS) and provided faculty for the course. Currently, the nature of discipline in geography and economics and the implications for curriculum development in school, including at the level of secondary education, is being examined and explored in Eklavya.
The Growing Team
From 1982 to 1990, the social science team at Eklavya mainly comprised of Ms Anjali Noronha, Ms Rashmi Paliwal, Shri Arvind Sardana, Shri C.N. Subramaniam and Prof. Pramila Kumar. After the first phase of the development of the programme, many new members joined the team at different points of time. Ms Yemuna Sunny, Shri Sanjay Tiwari, Shri Rammurthy Sharma, Shri Alex M. George, Dr Amman Madan, Dr Gautam Pandey, Dr Sarada Balgopalan and Dr Sukanya Bose have taken forward the aims of the social science programme through several fresh initiatives.
Reference
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