Nehruvian thoughts will dominate revised curricula in Congress states

ment wants to meddle in their curriculum too to reduce “traditional studies” in these schools, according to the source.

When the BJP ruled Chhattisgarh for 15 years, the Congress kept accusing it of distorting school textbooks, mainly the History syllabus.

In Rajasthan, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has directed his Education Minister to form a committee and come up with a new syllabus for text-books. Following Gehlot’s direction, Rajasthan’s Education Minister, Govind Singh Dotasara, has given the green light for the formation of a committee to look into the redesigning and rewriting of the textbooks for staterun schools.

The Education Minister is under instruction to highlight the roles played by Mahatma Gandhi and the Nehru family in the freedom movement in textbooks.

“The Educational Research and Training Council (ERTC) of Rajasthan has initiated the re-structuring process of the curriculum and according to instructions, prominence will be given to the role of national figures like Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru in the new textbooks,” a source close to the ERTC told The Sunday Guardian.

Similarly, in Madhya Pradesh, Chief Minister Kamal Nath has asked officials to prepare the “foundation” for the rewriting of textbooks for the new session.

Though the governments in the aforementioned states are rewriting textbooks, Dr Pravesh Kumar, Assistant Professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, said: “Frequent changes in textbooks without holding a proper expert consultation might distort the education system. Nowadays, it has become a fashion to brandish an ideology, but in the course of promotion of an agenda, political parties forget that they are playing with the future of crores of students.”

Experts say that the rewriting of syllabus might prove hard for the Congress governments in the Hindi heartland states and can damage their prospects in the general elections to be held this year.

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