National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has now started releasing the much awaited textbooks. According to the new National Education Policy, NCERT had published the foundation stage syllabus last year. Under this, a teacher’s aid for the Balawadi level (ages three to six) and a learning material for children to learn by doing “Jadu Ki Pitara” were launched. Its feasibility has been tested through selected central schools and started regularly from this year. Then Mathematics and language books for classes one and two were released. Thus, this new academic year started with the foundation stage textbooks, teaching aids and study materials for the first five years of schooling. Books for the world around us, Mathematics, Art, Physical Education, along with three languages, have come for Class three.
Approach, content and structure are all important when textbooks are brought to the third stage where subject-based learning begins. Moreover, these books are also hints of the textbooks to come in the higher stages. National Curriculum Framework (NCF) has put forward the main changes to be made through the new textbook, which is the emphasis on Indianness, the learning method that gives children experiential knowledge, scientific perspective and rational thinking as eternal life values, and the possibilities of inculcating them at the practical level. A glance at the textbooks does 100 per cent justice to NCF. Books are so loving and caring for children. This was also the most important demand of those who wanted a modern Bharatiya model to replace the outdated and flawed existing system. Against this backdrop, textbooks are at once exciting and comforting.
Studying History Scientifically
We can also see the way the study of History is approached in a very scientific and comprehensive manner in the arrangement of the lessons. The History lessons grow in a rational way like the chapters named as timeline and source of History, (what is History, History Studies, where Human History is) and then to our history through the topics India that is Bharatiya. We need to study everything right from the beginning of Indian Civilisation, India’s cultural roots, unity in diversity or many in one, family and community. In this way, the approach of the textbook is to mark History in its entirety and mark India’s place in it. Special attention has been given to inculcate motivation and self-esteem in students by introducing Bharatiya thought at the beginning of every lesson. The makers of the book have noticed that India’s cultural heritage is something that needs to be experienced beyond bookish knowledge while arranging each lesson. Democracy, debating culture, truth-seeking and experiential learning are embedded here as learning methods. Almost all the lessons are presented in a way that inculcates curiosity and practical wisdom (hands on experience) in the children. These textbooks have risen to a greater standard in formulating the core of the National Education Policy envisioned to create a modern ‘Knowledge driven economic society’ by integrating Bharat’s achievements in various spheres of life, our life values and knowledge tradition.
We know that the social science textbook in the initial stages deals with History, Geography, Political Science and Economics in an integrated way. Here, too, the content is embedded in the same manner. But all the lessons mainly go through five basic thoughts. One is geoscientific and the second is historical. Third, each part goes through investigations into cultural heritage and its characteristics, the values that drive it forward as a society, how those values were articulated and what their relevance is today. Through it, the new generation not only gets knowledge about the cultural heritage of Bharat but also gets an opportunity to appreciate it. It will surely create self-esteem in them. At every level, the child is given an opportunity to realise his role as an individual, to understand his duties and responsibilities with a sense of rights, and duties to understand the democratic system as a good citizen. The textbook has taken special care to create the conviction to put this civic sense into practice at an early age. The textbook deals with the field of economics through the Bharatiya perspective of achieving total well-being through the mutually beneficial support of natural and human resources. It permeates through history, geography and the challenges and opportunities of the modern age. It also creates a vision of how the global citizens of the modern age should approach it.
Grasping Our Rich Heritage
An attempt has also been made to infuse the exhortations of the great personalities and quotations from the ancient texts in a manner which is not superfluous or obnoxious, in order to give the necessary philosophical support to all these cases. The child also recognises that while the essence of India’s culture is on the oneness of all (Ekam Sat Vipra Bahuta Vadanti), it is expressed through different levels. It is also discussed that India’s intellectual heritage has been expressed in different forms such as art, literature, science, medicine, yoga, religion, governance, martial arts, architecture, sculpture, crafts, and paintings. Outside of this expression, the diverse philosophies of India, Samkhya Nyaya Yoga, Dvaita Advaita thought are presented in an engaging and intriguing manner. Through these textbooks, we can see the insight of how India has progressed through the integration of various religious practices like Shaiva, Vaishnava, Buddhist, Jain, Sikh, Sufi systems that emerged in India, and the seeding of the sense of mission (integrating different religious and ideological thoughts in the world) to be performed by India that is Bharat and we Bharatiya in the construction of the coming world order.
