Upgrading and improving textbooks

Science books, published and distributed under the auspices of the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) for the year 2011, which have recently come under some scrutiny in a contemporary once again exposes the deplorable quality of textbooks that school children are obliged to follow in the name of national school education. Not only have the textbooks been found to have factual errors, confusing figures and information have been used for the same items in different class texts ! For example, in text books for classes six, seven and eight, the number of chemical elements discovered so far has been entered as 109, 110 and 111 respectively. As per the 2007 data of the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, the correct figure is said to be 111. There are numerous other anomalies that should not be dismissed as minor faults. Many of the authors clearly need to go back to school before the texts can be improved substantially. Serious teachers, however, have always been deploring the poor standard of texts. The students hardly get a clear idea about fundamental science from these books, unless they have access to better sources. Indeed, even a casual comparison of NCTB text books with those of any 'world class' school level material will reveal how far removed NCTB is from what constitutes a reasonably sound, knowledge-based school education. The Chairman of the board has reportedly claimed that a seven-member team of academicians has already started working, not only on removing 'howlers' but also improving all the texts, not just science. Hopefully, this will be done in earnest, for the honing of the grey cells must begin early on if the nation is to really understand the workings of the 'digital' era. According to one analyst, the 21st century world is bound to be 'controlled and directed by an elite group with superior scientific know-how ... .and this elite would not hesitate to achieve its political ends by using the latest modern techniques for influencing public behaviour and keeping society under close surveillance and control. Technical and scientific momentum would then feed on the situation it exploits.' Developments worldwide seem to vindicate these words. Needless to say, only those who have kept their grey cells in good order would be able to make the connections in today's world, a world where people's consent as well as dissent can be manufactured and managed by the powers-that-be. Not understanding this phenomenon means remaining at the receiving end of all kinds of manipulations, tests and experiments that such powers are capable of conducting wherever they wish, say observers. Bangladesh of course presents enormous potential as an experimental field, for all kinds of chemical, biological or electromagnetic tests, for mind-altering, behaviour-controlling and other interventions that are not likely to be benign. The 'digital Bangladesh' dream should therefore not be confined to getting access to hardware and pushing buttons mechanically. It is imperative that an up-to-date knowledge-based education starts at the school level. In this context, nationwide initiatives, such as world literature, math and science based competitions, taken by some right-thinking academicians, are worth replicating, for the use of the brain's grey cells badly needs re-activating.