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Press Release

Bring back literature in education to foster meaningful life: NBT Chairman

Aug 10, 2019


 

NEW DELHI, 10 August 2019: Prof Govind Prasad Sharma, Chairman, National Book Trust, Ministry of Human Resource Development today said that vanishing literature from school education is clipping the wings of imagination and is robbing the child of a meaningful life despite having a successful career.

 

Speaking at 'Scrapbook 2019 - Children's Publishing Conclave' with the theme �Diversity of Content�, organised by FICCI, Prof Sharma said that technology is transforming the society and impacting children, which is a cause of concern. The kind of education you give to the society, you get the same kind of people, he said.

 

"Sahitya (literature) is vanishing from education and schools. There is no language section in Class 11 and 12. And, the focus on science and technology may give the child a successful career and a job but literature can build a sense of compassion, sympathy and cooperation among the children," he said.

 

Prof Sharma urged the publishers of children's books to create content that not only helps children lead a Safal Jiwan (successful life) but also Sarthak Jiwan(meaningful life) that goes beyond working for self and family by contributing towards society. He said, "Literature gives the wings of imagination even to a scientist for great works."

 

Dr Hrushikesh Senapaty, Director, NCERT said that it is a matter of great concern whether the society is preparing a good human being, a good citizen despite most of the children scoring above 90 per cent in studies. For this, he said that a complete change of mindset is required to destress the children and make them innovative.

 

"Knowledge construction will be done by the children themselves, but we will have to create the conducive environment. We will have to facilitate and encourage divergent thinking for innovation and creativity among the children," Dr Senapaty said.

 

Mr Ratnesh Jha, Chair, FICCI Publishing Committee and MD, Cambridge University Press said that the maximum impact on mind happens in early age and publishers have a huge business opportunity in children's literature to provide customised and diverse content on different platforms both for school text books and leisure reading.

 

Ms Karthika V.K., Co-Chair, FICCI Publishing Committee and Publisher, Westland said, "We need a lot of diversity in the content we create, in world views and points of view amongst us that allows us to engage with each other. We need many kinds of children, many kinds of students, many kinds of books and I hope Scrapbook will allow us to think further on all of these aspects."

 

FICCI, in partnership with Grant Thornton, will be preparing a survey-based study on book buying behaviour with a chapter on children's books. Also, the jury members of FICCI Publishing Awards were announced at the event.

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