Atal Bihari Vajpayee's Life, Political Career & Achievements To Be Taught In NCERT Books
The decision to include Vajpayee¡¯s achievements follows the Bharatiya Janata Party to build up the late PM as a national icon in the same league as Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi of the Congress.
The Union Human Resource Development Ministry has asked NCERT which decides the curriculum of various subjects in schools in India to include former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee¡¯s life, achievements, and poems in its textbooks. The textbooks would contain Vajpayee's long political careers apart from his tenure as PM.
The NCERT books are used in CBSE schools across India. ¡°There was a meeting held recently on this where it was decided that the NCERT will explore ways to include more on Vajpayee in school textbooks and that the new books be adopted from 2019,¡± told a senior official in the Department of School Education and Literacy in the Ministry to The New Indian Express. ¡°It was also decided that not only Vajpayee¡¯s political achievements but also some of the poems be included in literature textbooks in various classes,¡± the official added. Vajpayee passed away on August 16 following a prolonged illness that had kept him away from public life since 2009. He was given a state funeral by the Narendra Modi government.
The decision to include Vajpayee¡¯s achievements follows the BJP¡¯s objective to make the former PM an icon in the league of India¡¯s first PM Jawaharlal Nehru and former PM Indira Gandhi.
Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh governments where BJP is ruling have already announced Vajpayee¡¯s accomplishments. The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana, and Golden Quadrangle are main schemes initiated for former PM Vajpayee in his tenure and these two states will include these in state-level school textbooks.
¡°We have started deliberating how more can be included in Vajpayee in political science textbooks for classes XI and XII and chapters on politics in classes IX and X, and a team is already at work,¡± a senior NCERT official confirmed to this newspaper.
¡°Also right poems will be identified for Hindi textbooks.¡±
Presently class XII political science textbook mentions Vajpayee, but neither have details about his political journey nor about his work as PM. HRD minister Prakash Javedkar has asked to the concerned department to reduce the syllabus by almost half in order to reduce the burden on the students.
¡°The portions on Vajpayee will be drafted and included in the textbooks during the ongoing revision process,¡± another NCERT official said.
