Panaji: While the Goa Board of Secondary and Higher Secondary Education’s board of studies for each subject normally prepares textbooks for Classes IX to XII, the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) has led to a change in the process. For the first time, a joint committee comprising the Goa Board and the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will prepare new Konkani and Marathi textbooks aligned with the policy.SCERT director Meghana Shetgaonkar said that while new textbooks have already been prepared and introduced for Classes I to VIII, this marks only 40% of the overall work. The council is yet to prepare textbooks for Classes IX to XII in collaboration with the Goa Board.She said the SCERT editorial board, while developing textbooks for the lower classes, found a large body of work by Goan authors that is suitable for inclusion in textbooks for students from Classes IX to XII.While the Goa Board’s board of studies will be part of the joint committee, SCERT’s role will be to ensure the content is age-appropriate and aligned with the competencies prescribed for each class under the National Curriculum Framework and the NEP.“The textbooks we have prepared from Class I to VIII is only 40% of content creation. These 41 books prepared is only the beginning for SCERT. We will prepare Konkani and Marathi books for Class IX to XII along with Goa Board. Besides this, for Class VI to XII, we will prepare new textbooks for R3. There will be different textbook for same language if chosen as R1 and R3 by students,” said Shetgaonkar.Under the NEP, students from Class VI onwards study 10 subjects, including languages as R1 (Konkani/Marathi), R2 (English), and R3 (Hindi or any other language native to India, including Konkani or Marathi if not opted for as R1).Accordingly, the level of Konkani and Marathi textbooks will differ depending on whether the language is studied as R1 or R3.
