The Delhi government’s recommendations on chapter deletions from textbooks reveal an attempt to convert thinking students into docile citizens
Expectations ran high when the Aam Aadmi Party-led Delhi government was elected early this year. But judging from the proposals in a recent circular sent by it, the AAP-led government seems to be running scared of the challenge and the energy of first generation learners, and of the uncomfortable questions they may pose. The circular, on which opinions were sought, was issued to the heads of all government, government-aided, and private recognised schools in the National Capital Territory.
Consider the proposal: “To reduce the pressure of heavily loaded syllabi of various subjects and provide students with more quality time in school for vocational skills, arts like theatre, music, dance and sports etc.”
Only six days have been given for the response to the proposals issued on September 10, and the responses must, like our board examinations, be confined to 150 words. Time and space are clearly in short supply.
In order to economise further, the government has also circulated its own recommendations on which chapters are to be deleted and why. Apparently, what teachers are expected to do is to ratify these recommendations — that will have to be both prompt and efficient.
Textbooks are not cast in stone — they are meant to be updated, revised, critiqued, challenged, and changed. But unless there is some broad consensus on the procedures and perspectives from which these efforts emanate, revisions, or in this case deletions, of large portions of books are unlikely to achieve very much, even by the most well-intentioned interventions. For example, the English book for Class 7 is to shed seven chapters, the Class 8 history book five chapters, and so on.
Intellectual ‘burden’
Occasionally, two notions of ‘burden’ are often conflated — the physical weight of books, and their intellectual content. If, as many reports suggest, the former is the problem, it is best resolved by simply splitting existing books into two or three parts, to coincide with the school term — so a 120-page book can be reduced to two 60 page units, or three 40 page units. If it is a question of intellectual burden, then that is another matter.
Textbooks are developed organically. While some chapters are self-sufficient, others rely on explicit or implicit links with one another to enrich the learning process. Therefore, it is surprising to note that the chapter in Class 6 (History), which discusses the shift from hunting and gathering to food production, one of the most fundamental changes in human history, is dismissed as “not of historical importance”.
Ironically, while the space created by jettisoning entire chapters is meant to be devoted to learning arts, culture, sports, and so on, chapters dealing with these themes are to be dropped. These include an essay on Lok Geet (Class 6, Hindi), on architecture, painting and literature (Class 6, History), and on cricket (Class 10, History). The justification offered for the last deletion is, “Cricket is not a standard game. Lesson gives unimportant and exaggerated account of cricket. Hence, it may be deleted.”
The chapter on Jan Sangharsh va Andolan (‘Civics’, Class 10), will meet a similar fate because, “After reading this lesson students feel that agitation, anarchy and going against the government are the only means of securing social justice. This is not true in a democracy.”
Once again, the chapter is viewed in isolation, and recommended for excision. One wonders whether the members of the present government had read this chapter before they assumed power.
Condescension
Apart from such specific instances and the logic offered for deletions, what is depressing is the condescension implicit and sometimes explicit vis-à-vis the first generation learner. Phrases that are used to dismiss chapters from Hindi books include “very difficult language”, “far above the level of students”; another lesson “has excess of Urdu and Farsi words which are difficult for students to understand.” There are other concerns as well; so the chapter based on “The Diary of a Young Girl, Anne Frank”, (Class 10, English) is to be dropped because, amongst other things, it contains “Too explicit references to physical changes in the adolescent body.” Similarly, the chapter titled “A Long Walk to Freedom” (same book), excerpted from Nelson Mandela’s celebrated autobiography, is to be dropped because “Racism and Apartheid questions aren’t easily answered by students.” Chapters that are thought-provoking are dismissed as being “too dark and morose” (example, Class 6 English, ‘The Old Clock Shop’). That learners are diverse, that this diversity needs to be respected and built on rather than flattening out differences to a monochromatic uniformity is obviously not part of the perspective of those who are keen to lighten the burden on young minds. Instead of attempting to provide learners with an opportunity to understand and intervene in the complex worlds we inhabit, learners are to be cocooned within the simplistic unreal space of the school, which will perhaps become increasingly irrelevant.
Do the deletions rest on other, unstated apprehensions as well? Why, I could not help wonder, is the delightful story of Anarika’s questions (Class 7, Sanskrit) to be deleted? Is it because, ostensibly, “The focus of the lesson is to teach akarant words. This is a repetition of chapter 3”? Or is it because Anarika asks why the minister, who has not brought the stones, nor provided the funds, nor the labour for constructing a bridge, should be the one to inaugurate it?
We would have expected the AAP government to be more thoughtful, and resist the temptation to attempt to convert students into docile citizens. We would have thought that such a government would create the space for them to breathe, think, laugh and cry, even if these emotions have “no specific utility” like the Hindi poem, “Chand se thodi si gappe”, which is also likely to be excised.
(Kumkum Roy teaches History at the Centre for Historical Studies, JNU, New Delhi, and is currently Fellow, Nehru Memorial Museum and Library. Email: kumkumroy@gmail.com)
Keywords: Textbooks, chapter deletions, Delhi govt
