Removing names of great persons from syllabus denied

Bhopal, June 27 (UNI) The Madhya Pradesh State Education Centre (MPSEC) has described as baseless and misleading allegations regarding removing names of great persons from high school and higher secondary syllabi.

''Changes in the high school and higher secondary syllabi had been made in compliance with the rules of the National Curriculum Framework, 2005. Under this, every state has to make changes according to the present circumstances,'' MPSEC's Syllabus Standing Committee Chairman Govind Sharma and member Bhagirath Kumrawat told reporters here today.

Mr Sharma admitted that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) had not been regarded as a role model and 39 objectionable parts from Central Board of Secondary Education's (CBSE) syllabus had been removed.

He said the syllabus must not underestimate or glorify somebody.

He pointed out that the syllabus had not been changed for students of up to class VIII. As such, there was no question of removing names of Mahatma Gandhi and former Prime Ministers Pundit Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi.

Mr Sharma said Pundit Nehru's memoir 'Gubbarewala' and Mahatma Gandhi's poem 'Maa khadi ki chadar de' was present in class II syllabus, while class VIII Sanskrit syllabus had a chapter on Priyadarshini Indira Gandhi.

He said Gandhiji's life was already being taught in both English and Hindi and there was no logic for having a separate chapter in Sanskrit.

He described as baseless the allegations regarding removing chapters related to Muslim rulers stating that facts could not be denied in history. It could not be denied that Muslims had ruled the country. Likewise, a section of Rajputs, Guru Govind Singh and Rani Durgawati had fought Muslims could not be denied.

The standing committee had included chapters on former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri and Raja Chhatrapal in class III syllabus. Likewise, chapters on Ahilyabai, Bismillah Khan and President A P J Abdul Kalam had been included in class VIII syllabus.

In the Sanskrit syllabus, chapters on Chandrshekhar Azad, Vivekanand and Ahilyabai had been added.

UNI