August 7, 2002
To
Shri Digvijay Singh
Chief Minister
Madhya Pradesh
Bhopal
Dear Shri Digvijay Singh,
We are thankful for the government response to the agenda points submitted by us to you personally on July 10, 2002. We welcome the positive response to our appeal for building up a long term relationship between Eklavya and the State Education Department with the common goal of improving the quality of education in the entire state of Madhya Pradesh.
However, the question regarding the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Programme (HSTP) and the government's view of it still remains to be resolved and we would like to submit the following:
- HSTP was developed in consonance with the directives and guidelines for science education enunciated in the Kothari Commission Report (1964-66) set up by Pt. Jawahar Lal Nehru and chaired by Prof. D.S. Kothari. These directives led to the formulation of 'The Curriculum for the Ten-year School - A Framework" in 1975 approved by the government of Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. These directives were forcefully repeated in the National Policy of Education, 1986, formulated under the leadership of Shri Rajiv Gandhi. They were again reiterated in 1988 in the revised version of the National Curriculum Framework. The achievements of the programme must be evaluated in light of these directives and principles. We humbly submit that the assessment report submitted to you has failed to look at this aspect, and the resulting decision gives the impression that your government is no longer in agreement with these policies and principles of science education.
- The assessment report that forms the basis of your decision is singularly lacking in rigour, factual consistency and maturity of perspective. (Please see attached statement.) We believe many scienctists and educationists have already pointed this out to you. We strongly urge that the assessment report and factsheet be immediately withdrawn because they are doing immense damage to the credibility of your government.
In light of the above we strongly urge that the present decision to discontinue the curriculum developed under HSTP be withdrawn immediately so that no further damage is done to the larger vision of science education. The decision to permit its use in a supplementary form does not have any viability in the field because of total lack of support from the state government, and is effectively a process of killing the programme.
We have been informed by Shri Gopalakrishnan and Ms. Amita Sharma that the programme continues to function as earlier in Harda district and school complexes of 13 other districts. Unfortunately the orders issued by the Secretary, Elementary Education, to the Collector Hoshangabad and Managing Director, MP Text Book Corporation, with copies to collectors of all the other districts is leading to the issuance of orders in all these districts to close down HSTP. Our repeated appeals for issuance of clear-cut orders have received no response. This confusion in the field is not only causing harm to the programme but is also putting children, their parents and teachers through unnecessary suffering. We request you to intervene urgently to rectify this situation.
In order to set the wider process of improving the quality of education in the state we submit that the following steps be taken:
• Reiteration of the state government's support and endorsement of the universally accepted educational principles and policy directives enunciated in the National Education Policy (NEP) documents.
• Setting up of an expert committee under the State Advisory Board for Education to review HSTP in the light of these educational principles and directives. The committee should also study the strategies developed by HSTP to implement experiment-based learning in science in schools. This understanding will facilitate the incorporation of its positive aspects at the state level.
• Review of the state curriculum, textbooks and evaluation systems in the light of the educational principles enunciated in the NEP documents and formulate guidelines for improving them in accordance with the NEP directives.
• Designing and modification of the teacher training and evaluation processes in the state on the basis of this review of the existing curriculum, textbooks and evaluation systems so that a continuous process of curriculum regeneration is put in place.
• Implementation of the newly developed curriculum, teacher training processes and evaluation systems in a time-bound manner across the state, including in HSTP schools.
We would also like to state that while we feel that Eklavya has contributed in a substantial way to curriculum development and broadening the debate on good education, the collaboration with the Government of Madhya Pradesh for curriculum regeneration should be directed and overseen by a more representative body with a wider mandate. This pan-India body would be a federation with representation from universities, research institutions, school education bodies etc and Eklavya would work under its direction.
Yours sincerely
Kamal Mahendroo Anjali Noronha
for Eklavya
Encl: Our note: Is the CM being misled?