Shashi Tharoor, MP, will inaugurate a Kerala Pradesh School Teachers’ Association (KPSTA) march to the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) at Poojappura here on Saturday in protest against the ‘autocratic’ approach to school textbook preparation as part of curriculum reform.
The Left Democratic Front (LDF) government was framing the new curriculum by avoiding people of different ideologies. Members of teachers’ organisations affiliated to the Opposition were kept away from curriculum committee, core committee, focus group that prepared notes for detailed discussions, and textbook preparation. The Kerala Curriculum Framework (KCF) 2023 that should have been ready before textbook preparation was announced when the process was halfway. It was not even clear who had prepared the KCF, the KPSTA alleged in a statement here on Thursday.
The SCERT had conducted an examination to identify the best people for writing the new textbooks, but the results had not been declared till date nor the eligible selected. Instead, those who had not appeared for the examinations or were ineligible were preparing the new textbooks.
Though the government claimed to have asked students’ opinions too on curriculum reforms, it had thrown all democratic principles to the wind in textbook preparation. The KCF was claimed to be a continuation of the 1997 and 2007 curriculum reforms and totally ignored the changes brought about in the 2013 curriculum reforms. There were many apprehensions about ignoring the 2013 reforms and continuing with the 1997 and 2007 reforms that had seen widespread opposition, the KPSTA said.
Though the State government claimed to be opposed to the Union’s government’s attempt to rewrite history and its fascist attitudes, it was trying to do the implement these in the State, the statement by the KPSTA State committee alleged.
