Don't make textbook ideological battleground, Sisodia writes to Javadekar

In a letter to Human Resources Development Minister Prakash Javadekar, Delhi's Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia on Tuesday said that textbooks must not be used as a "platform for political point scoring" but designed to suit the needs of children.

"Successive governments have used education as an ideological battlefield, that is used to force certain narratives on children," Sisodia, also the Education Minister, said.

"Education must not be a platform for such political point scoring. The design of our textbooks must be with the sole purpose of improving learning outcomes of our children."

He said that textbooks should help children to generate genuine interest and curiosity.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had invited reviews of NCERT textbooks from states, at the 54th General Council meeting.

On behalf of the Delhi Government Sisodia presented a detailed critique of the textbooks and wrote a letter to Javadekar on the issue.

He said that the Delhi government's mentor teachers have designed special supplementary material for all subjects for Classes 6 to 8 called "Pragati".

Pragati material is aimed at overcoming the shortcomings of textbooks, as felt by teachers.

--IANS

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