Maintaining that the contents of books for Classes 1-8 are age-appropriate, Director of State Council of Educational Research & Training (SCERT) Meghana Shetgaonkar has however, said a review committee will be appointed to go through contents of all the 41 books.
Shetgaonkar was addressing a news conference on Tuesday at the GSCERT, Porvorim regarding Marathi and Konkani text books. Director (Admn) GSCERT Sarita Gadgil, State Coordinator NEP, GSCERT Rupesh Sawant, Member of Steering Committee & Vetting Committee of Textbooks (Marathi) Anil Samant, and Convenor of Content Development (Konkani) Sushant Naik were present.
Shetgaonkar stated that the task of preparing books for Class 1-8 was entrusted to SCERT under the NEP 2020 guidelines.
“Accordingly, SCERT prepared committees for each Class consisting of 10-15 people and around 150 academicians prepared 41 books, out which 16 books were for Marathi and Konkani,” said Shetgaonkar.
“The main focus was to compile age-appropriate and activity-based content with the focus of curricular goals and competency.”
“The SCERT did not give much emphasis on whether the contents should be taken from Goan or non-Goan writers. The focus was in preparing books with contents regarding Goan art and culture, Goan freedom struggle, nature, Goan cuisine, etc.”
“The editorial board in some cases could not get enough contents in Goan books and hence those contents were taken from books written by non-Goans. The efforts of 150 academicians have gone into the preparation of 41 books in short span, which was a gigantic task for SCERT.”
The SCERT director informed that as per the advice of the steering committee, a review committee would be appointed to go through the contents of all books for Class 1-8 and if required, SCERT would make necessary changes.
“But as things stand today, the content in all the books are as per guidelines and norms of the NEP,” said Shetgaonkar.
“In some schools like in Marcaim, teachers have started using these books in classes and there have been no complaints from anywhere. There is enough scope for improvement and SCERT is open to suggestions,” said Shetgaonkar.
