Rajasthan to introduce new syllabus for Class 1 to Class 12

To eradicate "cultural alienation", Rajasthan has decided to introduce a new syllabus for Classes 1 to 12 in government schools for the next academic session, with a greater focus on lives of country's 'Mahapurush' and history of the state.
According to a report in Press Trust of India (PTI), Minister of State for Education, Vasudev Devnanai said, ''The state government has planned to introduce a new school syllabus which would include stories of various 'Mahapurush' (great leaders), moral science, country's latest scientific development, ethos and history of Rajasthan.'' He further added that a high-level State Institute of Educational Research and Training (SIERT) is going to change the syllabus for Classes 1 to 8 and another committee set by Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education (RBSE) for syllabus reforms will make the amendments for Classes 9 to 12. The students must learn about 'Mahapurush' like Maharana Pratap and take lessons from their lives, the Minister said. He added that the committee would stress that for Classes 1 to 5, there should be 75 per cent chapters from Rajasthan and 25 per cent chapters from national importance.

When asked whether the foreign authors would be replaced by their Indian counterpart, the Minister said, "The foreign topics will be taught according to the importance. Dismissing the reports about the removal of a chapter on South African leader Nelson Mandela from Rajasthan textbooks, an anonymous senior committee member said, "miscreants who have no role in committees are spreading rumours through media".
Non-controversial, well-known international authors like William Shakespeare, John Milton, William Wordsworth's work would remain available in higher classes, he said.  He further informed, ''adding personalities whom the world knows will be there in courses particularly in English literature. In old or existing courses, there is a problem of cultural alienation because student of tribal belt or remote areas of Rajasthan might not be able to understand the top chapters specially in English literature, Art and Culture of other states as available in the books till now".