By Dr. Veronica Pala
I recently had the opportunity to review the Social Sciences textbooks prescribed by the Meghalaya Board of School Education (MBOSE) at the secondary level in a workshop conducted by North East Regional Institute of Education (NERIE, NCERT). I would like to share my observations with the public and especially with the concerned authorities with regard to what we teach our children. I will give examples from the Economics section although general observations are common for all sections of social sciences, that is, History, Civics and Geography as well. In Meghalaya the textbooks are written by textbook writers employed by private publishers and the textbooks are prescribed by MBOSE for use in the schools affiliated to it. It appears that there is no mechanism in place to review the textbooks before they are prescribed. Or if there is such a mechanism, the process is not carried out with due diligence.
Social Sciences and particularly Economics is a daunting subject for many students not because it is difficult but because of the way it is presented in textbooks which shape the way it is taught. A textbook should empower the students to learn by themselves. Why Economics is difficult is because economic terms are introduced thoughtlessly in the textbook. When the Class IX students read, suddenly they come across terms like gross national product, economic growth, legal tender, black money, human development index, etc. They do not understand these terms and the subject becomes difficult. The concepts should be introduced clearly and gradually. The content should be written in such a manner that only those terms that are already explained earlier will appear. If any technical word or economic term is introduced for the first time, a box or a footnote should be there in the same page where the meaning is given. There should be a flow of ideas and concepts. Useless duplication should be avoided. Currently, in the first chapter for Class IX, the first topic is on economic and non- economic activity. Then in chapter 2 which deals with ‘People as a Resource’, there is a section on economic activities and their classification into primary, secondary and tertiary sectors. In class X again the students study the same classification.
In my opinion, case studies should be reserved for later chapters when the students are familiar with more concepts. A case study can be properly analysed when the students already have the concepts and tools for analysis. Currently, in the first chapter of Economics of Class IX (the very beginning for the beginners) there is a case study. Further, the textbook should address the needs of diverse students. For this purpose, examples should be given from different settings and contexts. In the examples for economic activity, the activities that are given are, “when a person goes to office or a factory or to a shop to earn money.” A large number of students in rural Meghalaya who come from farming households will not be able to relate to these examples. This brings me to the issue of contextualisation. What I observe is that currently there is forced contextualisation making it a farce. For instance, in the Class IX textbook there is the story of Banjop, a cobbler in a small village near Varanasi in UP (Class IX textbook, p.352). This is ridiculous; it puts the student off learning and kills the interest in the subject. Contextualisation has to be done through various examples in different settings and scenarios, particularly local ones. Changing the name in an example does not make it local. Most of the examples in the Economics portion in the current Social Sciences textbooks relate to Uttar Pradesh. There is a need to get the local writers involved in developing textbooks to make them relevant so that students can relate to the examples, thereby making learning effective.
The next issue is language. Language is the medium through which the concepts and knowledge is conveyed. Therefore, language experts should be involved in the process through a systematic mechanism. A manuscript should be reviewed by a language expert, otherwise, the students get confused and they dislike the subject as soon as they are introduced to it. Sample these extracts: “Male Khasi works parallel with female” (ibid, p.327); “The Khasis and the Pnars are very good in carving. They have their own style of making gold, silver, necklaces, gold chains, from the tree, earrings and so on” (ibid, p. 329). Utmost care should be taken so that the textbook is free from factual errors. Conclusions which are not factual but rather personal opinions of the authors should not be allowed. We are talking about Class IX and X students who have just been introduced to the subject. An example: “Most of the Indians are religious in nature. Religion makes them fatalist. The very spirit of hard work is lacking in Indians”. Further, when figures or tables are given, the analysis in the text should correspond to those in the given table. For example, in the table, the poverty ratios are given up to 2011-12 which is the latest as of now, but the explanation in the text pertains to data for 1999-00 (Class X textbook, pp. 350-351). Such utter carelessness should be avoided because silly and careless mistakes confuse the young readers. Another example, in the Class IX textbook in the beginning of the chapter on Banks and Loans, the note which says “Why chocolate is very costly? My notebook’s price has gone up. Why?” belongs in the next chapter on Inflation. There are a large number of such examples of careless and thoughtless mistakes. The textbook should be subjected to thorough proof reading before final printing.
There should not be duplication of themes or topics in the same subject. For example, currently in Class X there is ‘financial education’ in Civics and ‘financial education’ in Economics. The Civics portion covers commodity futures market, economic depression, investing in shares and initial public offering. The Economics portion covers benefits of insurance, learning to trade (in the stock market), stock exchange and economy. These are fairly advanced Commerce topics and a Civics teacher who has not studied Commerce or Economics will find it very difficult to handle these topics. Further, the relative importance of the topic ‘commodity futures market’ is little in the sense that a very small number of people trade in this speculative market. The number of those who trade in the stock exchange is far larger, although it is still a very small proportion of the population. In my opinion, teaching Class X students how to trade in the stock market is not appropriate for their age. On the other hand, nowhere in the class IX or class X textbooks are the basic concepts of demand and supply mentioned.
Therefore, in developing a textbook utmost care should be given that the concepts are clear and introduced gradually. The needs of diverse students are addressed through proper contextualisation. Subject and language experts should be involved in reviewing the manuscripts. The textbook should be free from personal opinions, sweeping conclusions, factual errors and needless to say grammatical mistakes. Before a textbook is prescribed it should be thoroughly reviewed by a panel of subject and language experts. It should be made mandatory by the concerned authorities that such a panel is appointed and involved in a systematic mechanism.
(The author is with the Dept. of Economics, NEHU, Shillong)
