Question

Krishnakumar on textbooks and their role in education

Answer 1

Answer:

TEXTBOOKS are universally used but they

do not mean the same thing in different

countries. Their practical use in the school's

daily routine and their symbolic function

vary from one educational system to the

next. In some countries, textbooks are

published only by private publishers; in

others, only by the government. In certain

countries, state authorities merely recom-

mend suitable textbooks, leaving school

authorities and teachers free to select the

ones they like; in others, specific textbooks

are prescribed by the state, and no deviation

is expected or allowed. In some countries,

textbooks are purchased by the school and

provided to children in the classrooms; in

others, it is the children who must buy their

own copies of the prescribed textbooks and

carry them every morning to the school in

a capacious schoolbag.

Perhaps the most important variation,

from the viewpoint of pedagogy and cur-

riculum, is in the manner in which textbooks

are used. In some educational systems, the

teacher decides when she wants children to

consult a textbook. She prepares her own

curricular plan and mode of assessment, and

she decides which materials, printed or

otherwise, she wants to use. Textbooks are

just one of the many aids available to her

Such freedom can only be dreamt of in other

educational systems where the teacher is tied

to the prescribed textbook. She has no

choice — in curriculum or materials or

assessment. A textbook is prescribed for

each subject, and the teacher has to teach

it, lesson by lesson, until there are no more

lessons left. She must ensure that children

can do the exercises given at the end of each

lesson without help, for this is what they will

have to do in the final examination. The text-

book symbolises the authority under which

the teacher must accept to work. It also sym-

bolises the teacher's subservient status in the

educational culture.