Delhi University has completed three regular rounds of undergraduate admissions, but 13,433 UG seats are still vacant. According to the university’s latest spot-round vacancy list, the unfilled seats are spread across 1,160 college-course combinations
“We have a history of renowned political leaders; we hail from the lands of intellect. This university has nurtured multiple leaders, including Gulzarilal Nanda, Madan Lal Khurana, Mahadevi Varma, and many Chief Justices,” 23-year-old Priyanshu Vidrohi said
In Bihar’s Gaya district lies Patwa Toli, a village popularly known as the “Village of IITians." What makes it remarkable is the presence of IIT-educated engineers in almost every household. Every year, more than a dozen students from the village qualify for the IIT-JEE examinations
Jammu-born entrepreneur Onkar Singh Batra has added another remarkable achievement to an already extraordinary journey. From creating a website at the age of seven to developing a satellite at 16, Batra has spent much of his childhood exploring technology, entrepreneurship, and space
I have passed Class 12 (PCMB) with a state rank of 10 and have taken NEET 2026 and KCET. I want to pursue B.Sc. Chemistry but people say I should not do so because I have such good marks. I am also considering BDS or a B.Sc. Paramedical course
Are we teaching enough of India’s recent past in our history classes?
Are we teaching enough of India’s recent past in our history classes?
“What is history?” I asked a group of eighth graders.
“Things that happened in the past,” one volunteered.
“And what are these things?” I probed.
“Empires”, “Kings”, “Wars”, “Freedom Struggle” …
The answers poured in. Answers I have heard in schools across the country while travelling as an author of a series of history books on Independent India. So, I ventured, “What about events that happened after Independence? Are they part of history too?” Some students nodded. Others looked unsure.
“For several decades, events after 1947 were considered too close to be included in school textbooks,” says educationist Arvind Sardana, a member of the Social Science group at Eklavya, an NGO that develops and field tests innovative educational programmes. “This changed significantly in the 1980s through the Eklavya experiments and then in the 2000s through some state government initiatives.”
A key shift came with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005, which pushed for learning that was connected to the home and the community life of a child. Anita Rampal, who was closely involved with the NCF and was Chairperson of the Primary Textbook Teams, says, “It was a watershed because this was at the national level and so it had a different legitimacy. A lot of people who may have been engaging [with contemporary issues] at different places, in different times and different scales came together… Anything you're doing… Physics or Social Studies, unless a student can relate with it, interrogate it, try to observe and see connections with her experiences, it's not going to make sense. A learner is not going to be able to construct her knowledge, which is important to develop an understanding, and does not happen only by reading or repeating what information may be thrown at you.”
However, Rampal notes that contemporary issues within the social and cultural context of learners are currently being consciously kept aside, especially those considered ‘taboo', such as caste, gender, poverty or religious minorities. Even within the Social Sciences (where they do appear), there are major erasures and distortions in the syllabi and textbooks.
Setu Rehan — who heads the Social Science Department at Mind Tree School at Panjokhra, Ambala, Punjab — finds that discourses on contemporary history are spread across so many different subjects that they don't register as a distinctive theme. Events like the Partition and the Non-Aligned Movement, for example, fall into History. In Civics, students study the making of the Constitution, elections and so on, while events like the Green and Milk Revolutions appear in Geography as well as Economics. Moreover, such topics don't usually carry much weight in examinations, which further limits the attention given to them.
Pushpalata Pooranan — director of the Pushpalata Schools in Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu — adds that even though the syllabus includes several contemporary themes, “there is very little continuity or context-setting. Instead, students encounter stand-alone topics, which don't facilitate deeper understanding.”
In practice, meaningful engagement with contemporary history depends largely on the initiative of individual schools and teachers. Pooranan considers such engagement essential and actively encourages devoting time and resources to it. This includes designing lessons in ways that contextualise the past with the present, recommending supplementary readers, encouraging newspaper reading, and having at least one period every week for reading and discussions.
A growing challenge confronting educators is the sheer volume of information on contemporary history available to students online, where valuable scholarship competes with a flood of skewed and fake narratives. In such a situation, it has become even more important for schools to engage with this history. Initiatives such as the History for Children project at the Institute of Development Studies, Kolkata, alongside a growing body of postcolonial non-fiction for children, attempt to address this challenge by offering supplementary teaching resources. Historians Debarati Bagchi and Anwesha Sengupta, who worked on the History for Children project, describe their goal as creating space for questioning and helping children “doubt WhatsApp University knowledge and develop historical consciousness.”
Published - January 24, 2026 12:51 pm IST
The Hindu Education Plus / education / history / India / school / students / teaching and learning / history and culture / history books / university / universities and colleges / careers / Republic Day
Source: TheHindu
Related Posts: Meghaa Gupta,History,History in the classroom,Republic Day
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