New books and reviewing old books

Textbooks have been a worry not only for teachers and children but also parents.

Conceding that there have been issues with regard to the writing, collation, publication and distribution of 26.9 million textbooks, Commissioner-General of Educational Publications N. Dharmasena who has recently taken up this arduous task assures that he is streamlining this vital link in the education system.

Dealing with the two types of textbooks – the ones that are reprinted every year and those that are newly printed in accordance with curriculum changes, he explains that last year new books were printed for both Grades 6 and 10 as there have been curriculum changes.

“The children in Grades 6 and 10 this year got new books,” adds the Consultant to the Educational Publications section, F. Nanayakkara, pointing out that under the second cycle Grades 7 and 11 will get new textbooks in 2008, Grade 8 in 2009 and Grade 9 in 2010.

Yes, there have been a few problems with the multiple book option system introduced in 2004, Mr. Dharmasena says when The Sunday Times raised the concerns of teachers.

Under that system, textbooks were printed by private publishers who selected their own writers, though approval had to be given by the education authorities for the final product. For each subject, the school had a choice of three books, which may have been published by three printing companies. There was confusion among students while problems were encountered with regard to the demand and the distribution of textbooks, it is understood.

When private publishers were involved in this process, there were doubts as to whether they had selected competent writers, it is learnt.

Although in most other countries, textbooks are prepared and printed by private publishers, it is done by professional writers under the guidance of evaluation boards.

Mr. Dharmasena assures that to overcome these problems, a policy decision was taken by the government that from 2008, textbooks would be published under the guidance of the Education Publications Department. “There will be standard textbooks from next year, with the three books for each medium (Sinhala, Tamil and English) for any subject having the same content and being of the same level. The main objective is to give the student a book which is 100 percent accurate.”

The procedure is already in place, according to Mr. Dharmasena. Applications will be called from writers interested in handling the textbooks, with their eligibility to perform this important task being decided on certain criteria.

For each and every subject, there would be a 15-member qualified panel headed by an eminent person like a professor, which would decide on the subject matter, what to include and what to leave out.

The panel would also include a subject officer, an NIE officer who would check out whether the subject matter is on par with the competency based syllabus and three officers representing each medium so that no shortcomings would be detected once the book is printed.

Those selected to write the books will liaise closely with the panel to ensure that all relevant knowledge is included in the book.
Even when the book is written up, the panel will go through it with a fine tooth comb before passing it on to another panel which will edit the content, before finally being put before the third panel or evaluation board for the greenlight to print. Meanwhile, separate panels will edit and correct the Grade 6 and 10 books which are in use this year, introduced under the curriculum revision. These books will be edited and re-printed.

What of distribution of textbooks?

The Education Publications Department needs to know the number of textbooks required by each of the more than 9,000 schools.

On the complexity of the problems faced by his department, Mr. Dharmasena cites the example of Grade 10 textbooks.

“Under the new curriculum, Grade 10 students have six core subjects, some subjects being done in different languages and three optional subjects, one each to be selected from three categories which in total would have 19 subjects,” he says leading us into a mathematical calculation which seems beyond a normal person’s grasp.

“Only after classes commence in the new year and the students have made their choice will we be able to provide the required number of textbooks for these optional subjects,” he explains.

The distribution is carried out thus – the Education Department distributes books directly to National Schools, while for other schools the chain would be from the Provincial Education Office to the Zonal Office, then onto the Divisional Office and the school.

Another issue is the nearly one million students who are studying the local syllabus in private and international schools. “Although they are taught the local syllabus, the government is unable to issue textbooks to them. A decision has now been taken to issue the texts to these children at cost price,” he says.