Social Science Programme
Eklavya’s work in social science revolves around the social science programme which ran for 16 years as an experimental project in eight government schools in Dewas, Hoshangabad and Harda districts of Madhya Pradesh before it was closed down by the state government in 2002.
The programme sought to strengthen conceptual understanding of the social sciences in children by using information to foster critical analysis of social processes. Children were actively engaged in the process of curriculum transaction, discussing and sharing their experiences and learnings in the classroom. They were encouraged to search for and critically assess information, and make comparisons of their social and physical reality with the reality of other times and places so they could understand various issues and phenomena in history, geography and civics.
The programme structured the content of the curriculum around the theme of continuity and change and the inter-relationships between various aspects of society, polity and economy. It also sought to convey the idea that this process of change is a consequence of the interests and roles of different sections of society as they evolved over time. To know more about the programme you can click HISTORY.
After the closure of the programme in the government schools of Madhya Pradesh, work on preparing thematic modules of various topics contained in Eklavya textbooks, which can be more easily used by interested schools as supplementary material, has been speeded up. You can access these modules HERE.
Some preliminary work has also been done in reviewing the social science syllabus at the higher secondary level and work on developing an alternative syllabus is under way.
Teaching of Social Sciences 1983 Background Paper
सामाजिक अध्ययन शिक्षण एक प्रयोग
Module for teachers on solar system (Impact of curriculum on geography learning)