The aims, with which text-books have been nationalized in the whole country, are not being achieved. Some problems have arisen due to nationalization. Some of them are:—
1. Propagation of Political Views:
There are several political parties in our country. The party which will be in power in the state is likely to start propagating its political ideology through the nationalization of books. This is exactly what happened in Kerala.
ADVERTISEMENTS:
When communists came into power there, they began to propagate their views through text-books. Similarly, the B.J.P. Government in U.P. during 1991 and 1992 began to emphasize the inclusion of some basic elements of ancient Indian culture in the preparation of school textbooks.
This action of the B.J.P. Govt has been criticised by many other political parties in the country which stand for appeasement of certain groups of people for ensuring their votes during election days.
Thus it is clear that any political party can try to propagate its political ideology through nationalization. This will hamper free thinking and democracy will be jeopardized.
Image Source : assignmenteditor.com
ADVERTISEMENTS:
2. Disappearance of Teacher’s Freedom:
Nationalization forces the teacher to teach approved text-books only. Before nationalization, the teacher was free to select one book out of three or four published text-books. But due to nationalization he does not have any such freedom.
Thus he faces absence of inspiration for independent thinking. To meet this requirement Kothari Commission has suggested that even under nationalization, three or four books should be published on one subject and the teacher should be free to select one out of them.
3. Absence of Different Social View-points:
ADVERTISEMENTS:
Through textbooks we can carry the culture of the society to the students. In fact, they are the best source to fulfill this aim. But under nationalization, books are written only by a few selected persons and, therefore, different social view points are not included in them and our culture is presented to students only partially.
4. Publishing of Books Not in Time:
It has found many times that under nationalization, the text-books are published long after the beginning of the session because in the process of publication the book has to pass through some kind of red- tapism. This creates a serious hindrance in the study of students.
5. Lack of Competition among Authors:
Good books are prepared through competitions. Before nationalization, many writers engaged themselves in writing books. They tried to surpass each other in excellence. But this competition is not possible now, because only a few selected persons are required to prepare books. Consequently, standard of books is not forthcoming. Several kinds of defects are noticed in them.
6. Mistakes of Printing and Language:
The Government nationalised the text-books to get rid of mistakes of printing and language in them, because books prepared by different publishers were full of such mistakes. But books prepared under nationalization are not free from such defects.
7. No Proper Distribution of Text-books:
Under nationalization, too, the government depends on book-sellers for distribution of books. Due to this reason books do not reach the students in time. For this it will be better if cooperative societies for books are organised in schools and books are sent directly to them by the government.
The government could also distribute the books through its various offices in the beginning of the session.
8. No Proper Reduction in Prices of Books:
The private publishers fixed arbitrary prices of books. After nationalization it was hoped that books will be available on reduced prices. But hopes were belied because the government has to depend on private presses for printing of books.