NEW DELHI: History students will find chapters such as ‘Emergence of large empires in context of Greece and Magadh’ and ‘Major Philosophical Schools of India and World’ in their textbooks next year. ‘Religious Reformation Movement in Medieval India and World’ and ‘Emergence of Colonial Power and Their Policy’ will also be part of the history content for the secondary stage of schooling, recommended in the draft National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023.
The national steering committee, headed by ISRO ex-chief K Kasturirangan, submitted the draft to the Centre, reports Manash Gohain. Education ministry officials say NCF 2023 is likely to be finalised and the new curriculum will be rolled out in 2024.
NCF draft flags ‘lopsided’ social science textbooks
Exclusively accessed by TOI, the document while elaborating on social science education in schools, said: “The aims of social science in school education is to develop the disciplinary knowledge and understanding of how society functions through an interplay of historical, geographical, social, economic, and political factors,” as it recommended that important design consideration in development of textbooks on history, geography, economics, etc “must be truly and comprehensively representative with verifiable evidence.”
According to the recommendation, 20% of the social science curriculum at middle school is to be sourced from local context, 30% each on regional and national context and 20% on global context.
The draft NCF 2023 also said information in the chapters is transacted in the classroom with little or no connection to the immediate life of the student.
Commenting that within a social science class, students need to interpret the pieces of evidence and arrive at reasonable and justifiable narratives, it noted, “Another pressing issue with social science is that the content in textbooks is not based on facts derived from inquiry and investigation. While there is often multiple contrasting evidence to understand a particular social phenomenon, stressing one piece of evidence alone often gives a lopsided/inadequate picture,” as it recommends contents which are comprehensively representative with verifiable evidence.
At secondary stage where the social science gets broadened into history, geography, political science, and economics, the draft NCF presented chapter-wise suggestions for content.
For history in class IX some of the suggested content include ‘Changes in people life, culture, and belief in 4 to 7 Century CE across India’; a chapter on ‘India in 900 to 1200CE’ which include ‘Brief overview of Major Political power in that era,’ and ‘Feature of State-North and South India (in Context of Cholas and Pal, Pratihar and Chalukya),”‘ among others.
Class X history will include study of ‘Renaissance- Emergence of New Europe’; ‘Religious Reformation Movement Medieval India and World’; ‘Emergence of Colonial Power and their Policy’ among others. It also includes a chapter on ‘French Revolution and Rise of Modern Nation State,’ and ‘French Revolution and Rise of Modern Nation State” and ‘Indian Freedom Struggle.”
Similarly for political science in class X, a big focus is on democracy, which includes a focus on the northeast and language issues. In class IX students will be taught about the ‘Constitution of India,’ and, ‘Functioning of constitutional bodies in India,’ among others.
Stating that social science teaching currently confronts a few challenges in school which the new curriculum attempts to address, it said it is usually taught as a subject with predominantly rote learning of facts like dates in history, names of geographical features across the globe, the listing of fundamental rights and duties, and naming of economic institutions and “the other critical issue with Social Science is that the subject is divided into water-tight compartments of history, geography, political science, and economics too early on and too strictly.”
The national steering committee, headed by ISRO ex-chief K Kasturirangan, submitted the draft to the Centre, reports Manash Gohain. Education ministry officials say NCF 2023 is likely to be finalised and the new curriculum will be rolled out in 2024.
NCF draft flags ‘lopsided’ social science textbooks
Exclusively accessed by TOI, the document while elaborating on social science education in schools, said: “The aims of social science in school education is to develop the disciplinary knowledge and understanding of how society functions through an interplay of historical, geographical, social, economic, and political factors,” as it recommended that important design consideration in development of textbooks on history, geography, economics, etc “must be truly and comprehensively representative with verifiable evidence.”
According to the recommendation, 20% of the social science curriculum at middle school is to be sourced from local context, 30% each on regional and national context and 20% on global context.
The draft NCF 2023 also said information in the chapters is transacted in the classroom with little or no connection to the immediate life of the student.
Commenting that within a social science class, students need to interpret the pieces of evidence and arrive at reasonable and justifiable narratives, it noted, “Another pressing issue with social science is that the content in textbooks is not based on facts derived from inquiry and investigation. While there is often multiple contrasting evidence to understand a particular social phenomenon, stressing one piece of evidence alone often gives a lopsided/inadequate picture,” as it recommends contents which are comprehensively representative with verifiable evidence.
At secondary stage where the social science gets broadened into history, geography, political science, and economics, the draft NCF presented chapter-wise suggestions for content.
For history in class IX some of the suggested content include ‘Changes in people life, culture, and belief in 4 to 7 Century CE across India’; a chapter on ‘India in 900 to 1200CE’ which include ‘Brief overview of Major Political power in that era,’ and ‘Feature of State-North and South India (in Context of Cholas and Pal, Pratihar and Chalukya),”‘ among others.
Class X history will include study of ‘Renaissance- Emergence of New Europe’; ‘Religious Reformation Movement Medieval India and World’; ‘Emergence of Colonial Power and their Policy’ among others. It also includes a chapter on ‘French Revolution and Rise of Modern Nation State,’ and ‘French Revolution and Rise of Modern Nation State” and ‘Indian Freedom Struggle.”
Similarly for political science in class X, a big focus is on democracy, which includes a focus on the northeast and language issues. In class IX students will be taught about the ‘Constitution of India,’ and, ‘Functioning of constitutional bodies in India,’ among others.
Stating that social science teaching currently confronts a few challenges in school which the new curriculum attempts to address, it said it is usually taught as a subject with predominantly rote learning of facts like dates in history, names of geographical features across the globe, the listing of fundamental rights and duties, and naming of economic institutions and “the other critical issue with Social Science is that the subject is divided into water-tight compartments of history, geography, political science, and economics too early on and too strictly.”
