Textbooks for Classes IX to XII in Gujarat will from this academic session have chapters for students to read, learn and recite select verses from the Bhagavad Gita, a move decried as an emulation of the education model of religious schools.

Approved by the education department of the state government, teachings from the Hindu religious scripture have been incorporated in the language textbooks of four classes under the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board.

Education activists and the Minority Coordination Committee, Gujarat, a civil society organisation, have demanded that the education department should incorporate similar material from the scriptures of other religions.

The school board has issued a circular to the district education officers of the state on August 1.

The textbooks will have selected lines with explanations, while students will be asked to recite them with correct pronunciation. For example, Class IX students will study two chapters: My Guide — The Gita, and Bhagavad Gita and I. Children of Class X will study the chapters Absolute Devotion, and Guiding Light to Patriotism.

The chapters have verses from the Gita with explanations, followed by exercises for students. Activities have been suggested for both students and teachers. An activity
for Class IX students is that they will have to learn and recite the verses in correct pronunciation.

Ashok Agrawal, education activist, lawyer and president of the All India Parents Association, said the school education system should inculcate critical thinking in children, but teaching of the Gita without a critical approach would make them more religious.

“It is not the job of the state to introduce religion to children.... The materials have been prepared in a manner to encourage children to accept the texts as something sacred. This is a dangerous emulation of the religious school model...,” he said.