Lessons from the New Tamil Nadu government text books
Woo! Found two of my photographs included in the new Tamil Nadu school geography textbooks. They have been conveniently taken from my uploads to wikipedia (click pic for details). Too bad that the usage is illegal though, as it breaks the cc-by-sa license and does not credit the author. Public school text books with unlicensed photographs from the internet, good job Government of Tamil Nadu (well, what do you know, the tidel park pic shows up on the TN govt website carousel as well) 🙂
I cant help but feel disappointed with quality of the textbooks, I guess thats the price you pay by cutting costs and doling out freebies.
+1
- Making the books accessible online in PDF format for free.
- Audio enabled textbooks for the visually impaired
-1
- Optimizing text for least size and not for interestingness. Make way for more kids who really dont know what they are learning and why.
- Poor choice of images, illustrations, typography and layout. Have any of these guys seen the quality of books elsewhere in the world?
- Lack of references or suggestions for further reading. If you cant explain a concept properly, atleast tell him where he can find a good explanation!
I feel sorry for the kids getting half baked education from these texts. It neither creates any interest in the subject nor promotes inquiry and discussion. It was for this reason that I hated school.
2 responses to “Lessons from the New Tamil Nadu government text books”
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Hi
PlaneMad's BitterScotch - A few photos, a little design, some unusual experiences and snippets of my college life in India more >
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- Terrain Visualization of India using SRTM and Openstreetmap data
- Bangalore to Mumbai, 18 hours by bus and better than expected
- Found it! my scholarship to the Wikimedia Hackathon in Amsterdam
- Chennai Urban Area Landuse Map
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- Lessons from the New Tamil Nadu government text books
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- Enroute to Ladakh
- The essential Chennai rail transport map – looking back
Bitterscotch 
Hi Arun,
How are you? What’re you up to these days? Been a while. Nice to see your blog back again!
Just wondering if you’re planning to change your existing chennai corporation zone map to add in the new zones and wards? I know you’re not in Chennai any more but I’ve not found any official sources on the zone expansion, other than one map that appeared in the Hindu.
The corporation is several steps behind, as usual, and I’m not even sure if the new boundaries will be in place for the upcoming local elections.
Regards
Dynesh
PS – Frankly, I can’t recall the NCERT textbooks being any better than these! 🙂
Hello,
I happened to go through your blog a couple of days back and was impressed. Let me get straight to the point. We have a forum at http://www.chennaichatter.com exclusively for Chennai-ites where we discuss various issues pertaining to Chennai and the nation. I think it would be great if you join us and take part in the debates. It would add a whole new class to the discussions.
Have a great day!
Thomson.