Cultural Heritage in School Curriculum

Many educators have expressed that the present school system in India is too centralised, elite-dominated and urben-oriented . The new cultural curriculum and pedagogy must take into account the life-views and living styles of the communities to which the school-going children belong and adapt the content of learning to their needs and aspirations.
Cultural heritage in the curriculum can inculcate Indian cultural values among the children. The Cultural Heritage studies should be named as Heritage Activity (HA): the name is meant to highlight that the students are not being asked to memorize facts about culture but learn heritage, in a significant way, through activities.
Heritage activities can be taught through child-friendly activities like dance, painting etc. There will be a gradual transition from the experimental lower classes to the conceptual higher classes. At all levels students shall be involved practically, by their teachers in knowing the material heritage (such as archaeological sites, temples, museums etc.) and abstract heritage (philosophies, poetry, scriptures), forms of Indian Heritage through workbooks, projects and visits to sites, and less through text-books to be memorized for examinations.
Besides the school system, other cultural resource centres such as museums, historical sites, documentation centres, research institutions, places of worship, holy sites, pilgrimages etc., shall be used to give a proximity to and respect for the living heritages and the regions of India.
Special care should be taken to use the local, regional and geographical aspects of Heritage around the school to accommodate the diversity of Indian culture. The HA workbooks and projects shall be prepared at state level and also reflect and hishlifht the living rural and folk wisdom of India.
Excerpts from: Vihangama Vol. IV, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, New Delhi, August 2001.