The history of text-books in our country is not very old. In the ancient and middle ages some text-books were prepared on leaves of palm trees or copper-plates. After the invention of paper, manuscripts were prepared on paper.
The number of such manuscripts was so limited that an ordinary student could hardly have any approach to them. Therefore, oral education was very much in vogue. After the establishment of the rule of the East India Company in India, Calcutta Education Press was started in Calcutta in 1824.
Thus printing of books was begun in this country. In 1854, the recommendation for the publication of books was made in the Wood’s Despatch. As a result, many books in English, Persian and Sanskrit were published.
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But no Education Commission or education committee ever gave any concrete suggestion for improvement of text-books. We do not find any concrete suggestion for improvement in text-books in the reports of Indian Education Commission, 1882, Calcutta University Commission of 1917-1918, Hartog Committee of 1929 and Wood Abbot Report of 1936-37.
After 1910, the Indian leaders paid some attention to education. But except for the formation of education policy, they could not pay any attention to other details regarding education.
In 1937, when the Congress Ministries were formed in some States under the Government of Indian Act, 1935, our national leaders turned their attention to text-books. In 1937- 38, the first Acharya Narendra Dev Committee, U.P., gave suggestions for the improvement of books.
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It recommended that text books should be rewritten according to new needs and should be edited by a board constituted by the provincial government and further that books should be prepared by different authors.
In January, 1943, a meeting of Cultural Advisory Board was held and it was suggested that once selected they should be retained at least for three years. The Board also suggested that the books should be made available at reasonable prices and the publishers should not try to exploit the students Books should be published by good publishers alone and good authors should be encouraged to write books.
In 1953, the second Acharya Narendra Dev Committee, U.P., again considered the issue of text-book and gave the folloVing suggestions for its improvement:
1. The headmaster and the teachers alone should have a right to select text-books.
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2. Any selected text-book should be retained at least for three years.
3. The government should make arrangement of good books.
4. Sufficient time should be given to authors for writing books.
5r Provision should be made to give reward to authors of good books.
6. The responsibility of publishing books should not be taken by the government.
In 1952-53 the Mudaliar Commission condemned the prevailing low standard of text-books and emphasised the need for their improvement.
In 1954, an international group under the Ford Foundation studied the standard of some text-books current in India. This group suggested that the Indian Government should prescribe some rules for composition of books and the publishers and writers should prepare books according to those rules. But the government should not take the responsibility of their publication upon itself.
In 1964-66 the Kothari Commission considered the issue of text-books. The Commission had been of the opinion that subject experts do not take interest in writing text-books. The concerned authorities behave dishonestly in the selection and approval of books.
The Commission said that there was a need of research in the field of text-books. The Commission has suggested that text-books should be published by the education department of the Government.