Textbooks should not belittle any religion: Joshi

By Our Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI, DEC. 13. The Union Human Resource Development Minister, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, today said textbooks should not contain any material which ``belittled'' any religion and went against the promotion of religious tolerance and equal respect for all religions.

Presiding over a general body meeting of the National Council for Educational Research and Training, which opened here, Dr. Joshi said the Centre would convene a conference of State Education Ministers here next month to discuss the new curriculum framework drafted by the NCERT.

The Government's new programme for universal primary education, `Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan', would also be launched.

The new curriculum framework was in keeping with the mandate of the National Education Policy and provided for a review every five years to keep it in tune with socio-economic and other changes. It was last reviewed in 1992.

Earlier, addressing an international seminar on `indicators of quality education at elementary stage'', Dr. Joshi said paucity of teachers was a major problem facing primary education and needed to be addressed at the earliest.

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