U.P. kids to learn Tamil greeting along with ‘Pranam’, ‘Salaam’

PRAYAGRAJ: Students enrolled in government-run primary schools of Uttar Pradesh will now also learn the Tamil greeting ‘Vanakkam’ (hello) along with ‘Pranam’ and ‘Salaam’.

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books of English, Hindi and Mathematics of classes 1 and 2 are to be used in more than 1.14 lakh government-run primary schools running under the UP Basic Education Council in the state. Customising these books in the context of UP, a report was sent to the NCERT headquarters by the State Institute of Education (SIE)-Prayagraj recently.

In the context of UP, permission was sought to use the words ‘Pranam’ and ‘Salaam’ in place of ‘Vanakkam’ in Chapter 2 on ‘Greetings’ of Class 1 English textbook. NCERT has given permission to print the words ‘Pranam’ and ‘Salaam’ but has also asked to include ‘Vanakkam’ so that students can be introduced to the diversity of the languages in India, as per officials of SIE-Prayagraj .

Similarly, permission was sought to write ‘Kheer’ in place of ‘Gudok’, a food item of the north-east , in the book. On this too the NCERT has asked SIE to write ‘Gudok’ along with ‘Kheer’ in the book for the same reason.

In the same book, permission was also sought to use ‘halwa’ instead of ‘idli’ to which NCERT pointed out that that today ‘Idli’ was a popular food item of south India, known all over the country and hence it should not be left out of the book.

SIE, a unit of State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), UP, would now finalise the books as per NCERT guidelines, paving the way for UP students to learn and understand many new words and their meanings in classes 1 and 2 from the next academic session, the officials said .

Permission was sought to write the word ‘Maa’ in place of ‘Avva’ (mother’s name common in more than one language) and ‘Shanti’ in place of ‘Onshangla’ in the Class 2 English textbook. However, NCERT advised not to exclude these words from the book.

Similarly, there was a request to publish the word ‘halwa’ in place of ‘upma’ in the class 2 textbook, but NCERT again advised to teach ‘Upma’ also. Permission was sought to print the names of ‘Makar Sankranti’, ‘Holi’, ‘Diwali’ and ‘Eid’ in place of some festivals like ‘Phuldei’, ‘Adi Perukku’ and ‘Pang Lhabsol’. The council has given permission to add new names but has asked that the already existing names be retained too.

Assistant deputy director of education, State Institute of Education (SIE), Deepti Mishra said the books were being now written in the context of UP as per the instructions of NCERT.