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>>fix the education system that has been messed by the previous administration. There is an assumption that the education system currently is in 'mess'. That i

by kamaal 9y ago

>>fix the education system that has been messed by the previous administration. There is an assumption that the education system currently is in 'mess'. That is not true. >>The 1% of history gets 99% focus That is how school level education works. Do you think they teach 99% of physics or math in school? Or 99% of entire literature of whichever language you study? You can always opt for Masters or Doctorate in history, instead of other engineering or medicine courses. >>whereas an equally amazing 99% is not mentioned Feel free take up History as your specialization after 10th standard. You can go up to Doctorate and beyond. >>either due to laziness or due to scheming history writers, wanting to support a particular ideology. History is already well written and you can read if you wan to. And even study it full time. You just have to pick the right course. Don't expect to opt for Engineering and Medicine and then study history there. >>Whats worse, is an Indian kid learns more about 200 to 400 yr old architecture around the world, but zilch about a 1000yr old fort or a temple in his/her own state. As an Indian kid in the past, now adult. Who used to spend a lot of time in libraries, you can walk into any government library and pick up any book on any era and specialize on. There is mountains of work written. People just don't read it because the economic value of such knowledge is 0.

newyankee 9y ago
While i agree Indian history cannot be taught properly in a history text book i think each state introduces its own biases and the CBSE textbooks do a big disservice to Indian icons like Shivaji and their contribution to the country especially at the expense of Muslim rulers. The well documented atrocities of a despot like Aurangzeb are whitewashed
- kamaal 9y ago
  Sure, if we are talking about this sort of stuff, let's do away with Hindi language being mandatory. We already have English as a common language. And you guys are suggesting local culture and its history comes first. So local state language and english should be enough. One less subject means we could add a 'History' elective to high school syllabus. Those who are interested can opt for it. Others can opt for whatever they want(Math, Economics, etc etc).
  - msravi 9y ago
    Why English?
- sirtaj 9y ago
  In my schooling in New Delhi in the 80s -- when the Congress-ization of the NCERT was at its peak -- I clearly recall being taken on a school trip to see a film about Shivaji, and also learning about the cruelty of Aurangzeb to everyone including his own family. So I'm not sure what sort of whitewashing you're referring to. Where did you go to school?
  - msravi 9y ago
    There's a difference between what history textbooks/syllabuses teach, and the history that you learn from your parents, amar chitra kathas, films, and even your teachers. The whitewashing happens in the syllabus and textbooks, but fortunately, it's very difficult to whitewash the collective memory of a society that has been subject to a brutal rule and that has been transferring knowledge from generation to generation by word of mouth. Also, it's pretty hard to hide the clearly visible signs of destruction of idols, temples, and other hindu architecture, so a society would need to suffer from an extreme case of cognitive dissonance to accept what's in our history texts as truth.
    - sirtaj 9y ago
      Is there some reference you can point to about this whitewashing in the textbooks? Because I don't recall it being so.
      - msravi 9y ago
        Yes, of course. Just get the NCERT history texts of Grade 6 and 7[1]. Grade 6 deals with ancient india till Harsha (6xx AD). Grade 7 starts with Delhi Sultanate (12xx AD). 600 years of history that included the brutalism of Ghazni and Ghori gone. Poof. Just like that. 1. https://www.books4jobs.com/ncert-books-history-class-6-12-ias-examination/ https://www.books4jobs.com/ncert-books-history-class-6-12-ia...
        msravi 9y ago
        Also, try reading the account of historians of the period and compare the description of brutality - mountains of skulls, 100,000 infidels (taken as slaves) put to death overnight, etc. with the description in your favorite history text which probably says "Timur ransacked Delhi".
warmcat 9y ago
>> There is an assumption that the education system currently is in 'mess'. That is not true. Oh please stop with that attitude. You must have gone to a good private school with good teachers and expensive tuition classes after school to get to where you are today. Just look at the schools that economically backward children go to today and try taking their classes. This comes from someone who has personally gone to some classes in those schools (especially in rural areas). Ground reality is that the education system is really a mess. This is not an assumption.
- kamaal 9y ago
  Universal health care, education and food security are long shot problems. Impossible to solve to solve on the short term problems in India. Its just the scale. There aren't enough tax payers, or the scale of the economy to collect that much taxes to fund these sort of policies. The population is mind boggling. At the state level there are still many policies to solve these which are being chased. But its not a easy problem to solve for our population numbers. There is an even deeper problem of tax accountability you need to fix and go on to these things. This mostly a policy problem. The parent is trying to imply a problem with the content of education syllabus.

by kamaal 9y ago

newyankee 9y ago

While i agree Indian history cannot be taught properly in a history text book i think each state introduces its own biases and the CBSE textbooks do a big disservice to Indian icons like Shivaji and their contribution to the country especially at the expense of Muslim rulers. The well documented atrocities of a despot like Aurangzeb are whitewashed

kamaal 9y ago
Sure, if we are talking about this sort of stuff, let's do away with Hindi language being mandatory. We already have English as a common language. And you guys are suggesting local culture and its history comes first. So local state language and english should be enough. One less subject means we could add a 'History' elective to high school syllabus. Those who are interested can opt for it. Others can opt for whatever they want(Math, Economics, etc etc).
- msravi 9y ago
  Why English?
sirtaj 9y ago
In my schooling in New Delhi in the 80s -- when the Congress-ization of the NCERT was at its peak -- I clearly recall being taken on a school trip to see a film about Shivaji, and also learning about the cruelty of Aurangzeb to everyone including his own family. So I'm not sure what sort of whitewashing you're referring to. Where did you go to school?
- msravi 9y ago
  There's a difference between what history textbooks/syllabuses teach, and the history that you learn from your parents, amar chitra kathas, films, and even your teachers. The whitewashing happens in the syllabus and textbooks, but fortunately, it's very difficult to whitewash the collective memory of a society that has been subject to a brutal rule and that has been transferring knowledge from generation to generation by word of mouth. Also, it's pretty hard to hide the clearly visible signs of destruction of idols, temples, and other hindu architecture, so a society would need to suffer from an extreme case of cognitive dissonance to accept what's in our history texts as truth.
  - sirtaj 9y ago
    Is there some reference you can point to about this whitewashing in the textbooks? Because I don't recall it being so.
    - msravi 9y ago
      Yes, of course. Just get the NCERT history texts of Grade 6 and 7[1]. Grade 6 deals with ancient india till Harsha (6xx AD). Grade 7 starts with Delhi Sultanate (12xx AD). 600 years of history that included the brutalism of Ghazni and Ghori gone. Poof. Just like that. 1. https://www.books4jobs.com/ncert-books-history-class-6-12-ias-examination/ https://www.books4jobs.com/ncert-books-history-class-6-12-ia...
      - msravi 9y ago
        Also, try reading the account of historians of the period and compare the description of brutality - mountains of skulls, 100,000 infidels (taken as slaves) put to death overnight, etc. with the description in your favorite history text which probably says "Timur ransacked Delhi".

warmcat 9y ago

>> There is an assumption that the education system currently is in 'mess'. That is not true. Oh please stop with that attitude. You must have gone to a good private school with good teachers and expensive tuition classes after school to get to where you are today. Just look at the schools that economically backward children go to today and try taking their classes. This comes from someone who has personally gone to some classes in those schools (especially in rural areas). Ground reality is that the education system is really a mess. This is not an assumption.

kamaal 9y ago
Universal health care, education and food security are long shot problems. Impossible to solve to solve on the short term problems in India. Its just the scale. There aren't enough tax payers, or the scale of the economy to collect that much taxes to fund these sort of policies. The population is mind boggling. At the state level there are still many policies to solve these which are being chased. But its not a easy problem to solve for our population numbers. There is an even deeper problem of tax accountability you need to fix and go on to these things. This mostly a policy problem. The parent is trying to imply a problem with the content of education syllabus.