History education in schools needs urgent revamp
IT IS a sad fact that many school children in India do not like to study history. According to them, history classes are boring, involving innumerable dates and events, which needs to be memorised. History has no future and is not job-oriented. So why study the subject at all? The subject is so frightening to students that, there is a general demand among students to get at least two days holiday before social studies and the CBSE for the past few years has kept social studies on the first day of the exams so that, the students get ample time to concentrate on the subject.
The reason for this dismal state of affairs is that, there has been in the recent past a systematic marginalisation of humanities and the growing importance given to maths, science and commerce. There is a general impression that students opting for humanities have no future. Today students who take up humanities do so, not out of interest but, because they have no other option. As a result, there has been a tremendous shortage of good history teachers, who really understand the subject and know the purpose of studying it.
Good public schools are facing shortage of teachers for social studies .The situation is such that history is taught by either English or science teachers; or by teachers who are not confident with the subject at all. It is held that only teachers proficient in the subject can teach chemistry and physics. But history can be taught by anybody since it involves only reading and explanation; and ensuring that the students marked the answers properly and memorised them so that, they pass in their exams.
To make the students associate with the past and partly to relieve them of the boredom, CBSE, ICSE boards have tried to make the subject more project based. It was thought that this would instill interest and love for the subject. But thanks to the Internet; children almost unanimously take materials and pictures from the net; thus, making the work monotonous and unreadable.
Moreover, projects are done from examination point of view and therefore, the projects are done without thought or understanding. Since projects come under internal assessment, teachers end up giving their students full marks. Thus the original idea behind the introduction of projects has lost its purpose.
How do we change this present state of affairs? The first and foremost task is to change the design and the look of NCERT books, which, are considered to be the best in the country. It is not just boring but verbose, badly written, confused and unreadable. Far from inspiring the students, it will further increase their hatred towards the subject.
Mythology plays an important role in history learning. I experienced this myself when I had taken some students of class VI to the Golconda Fort. What attracted them most was the light and sound show, which told them of the stories that abound the fort. They themselves came up with questions like –Who built the fort? What is the utility of a fort? When was the fort built? How many years it took to build the structure? -etc etc .It is through mythology that they learnt the hard facts of history. The story element made all the difference.
It is only when history is combined with mythology, that history becomes alive. In fact this also explains the tremendous success of Jodha-Akbar, Mughal-e-azam Rang de Basanti.and other historical movies. Gandhi became more popular and loved by the people of the country not through learning the hard facts of history, but through Lage Raho Munnabhai. Historians might write pages after pages analysing the authenticity of the stories and dissociate history from myths; the reality is that, mythology is an integral part of history learning. It is for us to decide whether we want to confine history only to the elites or spread it to the masses.
More : merinews.com