Date:15/07/2004 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2004/07/15/stories/2004071515600300.htm

New Delhi

Students demand old history textbooks

By Our Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI, JULY 14. Stepping up their demand for detoxification of school education and an increase in the budget allocation for education, the Students' Federation of India (SFI) today staged a demonstration outside Shastri Bhavan here and submitted a memorandum to the Union Human Resource and Development Minister, Arjun Singh, asking for the immediate reinstating of the old history textbooks.

Culminating its two-day All India Convention on Education with a march attended by over 150 delegates from across the country, the gathering was addressed by CPI (M) politburo member Sitaram Yechury and Member of Parliament, Nilotpal Basu. Welcoming the proposal for education cess in the Budget, Mr. Yechury said some of the proposals did not represent the aspirations of the people as reflected in the electoral mandate.

Detoxification of school education continues to be the student outfit's major demand with the SFI urging the Minister to stop the printing and distribution of NCERT history textbooks brought out in the last couple of years and its replacement with an alternative that is in keeping with the "secular, egalitarian and pluralistic values of the Indian Constitution". It has further demanded that all NCERT textbooks prescribed by the CBSE until 20001-02 be restored without any modification from the current academic year.

Urging the Ministry to withdraw courses like Jyotirvigyan and Pourohitya, the SFI has also asked for the removal of tainted officials from positions of responsibility in educational and research institutions. Another demand put up by the student outfit in the memorandum is the restoration, restructuring and reconstitution of the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).