– Mita Mukherjee 

The school syllabus restructuring committee of West Bengal has recommended academic reforms to make the school syllabus more “student-friendly” and promote better understanding of subjects over rote learning, committee chairman Debashis Chatterjee said.

The recommendations have been made keeping in mind “some major challenges and behavioural issues” among children, including those arising from the overuse of smartphones, said Chatterjee, a retired professor and former dean and head of the department of chemistry at Kalyani University.

One of the key recommendations is to begin every chapter in textbooks for Classes I to X with an introductory summary to give students an overview of the topic before they study it in detail. Each chapter will also include a learning outcomes section to help teachers assess how much students have understood after completing the chapter, Chatterjee said.

“After discussions with a cross-section of teachers and academics, we found that many students tend to skip reading a full chapter if they don’t find the topic interesting. So we want to include a summary of the chapter at the beginning to draw students’ attention to the topic before they are taught it in detail. The summary, which may be one to one-and-a-half pages long, will be written in an engaging manner. Even if some students do not study the chapter thoroughly after reading the summary, they will at least learn something about the topic. It is better to know the important points of a topic than to know nothing about it by skipping the chapter altogether,” Chatterjee told EducationWorld.

Teachers, however, will be advised to use the summaries to motivate students to read the chapters thoroughly.

The learning outcomes will also help teachers assess students’ observational skills and understanding of core concepts, Chatterjee said.

According to Chatterjee, West Bengal is among the few states where government schools remain popular with parents because of the quality of education they provide.

“Our aim is to improve the standard of education in every government school,” he said.

In another significant recommendation, the committee has proposed that every textbook from Classes I to X carry the life story of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, highlighting his contribution to education, his role in shaping modern Bengal and his patriotism.

“We want students to develop a clear understanding of Syama Prasad Mookerjee in every class. So we have included his life story at the beginning of each book. But we don’t want to put any additional syllabus burden on students,” Chatterjee said.

The recommendations are ready and will be sent to the state government for approval before Durga Puja, he said.

“The syllabus has not been overhauled. We have only incorporated certain changes that are immediately necessary. Total overhauling is not possible because the revised textbooks will have to be ready before the next academic session begins in January. Nearly 12 crore textbooks will have to be published by January. But we will gradually introduce more changes and corrections to make the syllabus as student-friendly as possible,” Chatterjee said.

Other recommendations include dropping the reference to the Singur movement, which resulted in the withdrawal of the Tata Motors project from the state in 2008, and removing the reference to the Kanyashree scheme of the previous Mamata Banerjee government. The history of the Mughal Empire has also been reduced.

Academic sources, however, criticised the BJP government for introducing the life story of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the predecessor of the BJP, without consulting teachers and academics in the state.

“BJP governments across the country have restructured school and college syllabi to suit their party narrative. By introducing the life story of Syama Prasad Mookerjee, they can familiarise students with his life. But they should also introduce other changes to make students ready to face the challenges they will have to confront in the future,” a university professor said.

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