POCSO law included in social science syllabus of class 7

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The POCSO Act will be made part of the school curriculum from the next academic year. The move is in the wake of increasing violence against children in recent times. As of now, the Pocso law will be taught in the social science subject for class 7. It will be also included in class 8 social science from next year. It was also decided to include the Preamble of the Constitution in all textbooks.

The curriculum will be comprehensively revised to include vocational education in classes 5 to 10. The textbooks of classes 1, 3, 5, 7 and 9 will be changed next academic year. The change in classes 4, 6, 8 and 10 will be from next year.

Minister V Sivankutty announced in a press conference that the School Curriculum Steering Committee has approved 173 titles of textbooks. All books in 1st grade have activity books. Books for teachers are also being prepared. For the first time in the country, books are also being prepared for parents. The content will mostly be guidelines for children.

The books are in Malayalam, English, Tamil and Kannada languages. The minister informed that new textbooks will be made available two weeks before the opening of the school. The minister said the concern regarding the extension of the academic year will be discussed with teachers' unions.

Public Education Department Principal Secretary Rani George, Director S. Shanawas and others also attended the press conference.

1. Vocational education includes tourism, agriculture, IT, textile and skill development. Textbooks for arts education and vocational education are also introduced.
2. Sports, waste problems, cleanliness, civic consciousness, gender awareness with equal justice, scientific consciousness, agriculture, democratic values ​​and secularism also found place in the new syllabus.

The previous comprehensive curriculum revision was done in 2007.