Make civic learning part of curriculum: Prof. Thorat

Hyderabad: Prof. Sukhadeo Thorat, Chairman, Indian Council of Social Science Research-ICSSR has strongly felt that students must be sensitised on the societal issues and also discuss, as part of the curriculum, the ways and means to address them in the overall interest of the nation.

Prof. Thorat was delivering the fourth foundation day lecture on ‘Higher Education in India: Issues Related to Equity, Diversity and Nation Building’ at The ICFAI University, here on Tuesday. Prof. Thorat, who was former chairman of the UGC, quoted the example of the US and the UK where specific efforts were made to introduce civic education in the curriculum. He pointed out that these efforts at diversity education created better citizens as well as improved the academic performance of students. “We have a challenge to introduce separate curriculum to deal with diversity and sensitise our people to the inequalities in the society and thus meet the important goal of education which is nation building,” he said.

He suggested a framework consisting of knowledge, capability, action and engagement for creating an appreciation for diversity among stakeholders.