‘Cooperation’ now a classroom topic nationwide, but Kerala holds back

Thiruvananthapuram: The Central government has announced its decision to include ‘Cooperation’ as a topic in school education. From the upcoming academic year, the topic will be integrated into the NCERT curriculum as part of sixth grade social science. A textbook covering the topic of ‘Cooperation’ will be introduced in classrooms from the next academic year.

However, in Kerala, NCERT subjects are not uniformly followed in school education, except at the higher secondary level. As a result, the new topic will not be taught in Kerala schools at present.

Although there had been discussions about incorporating ‘Cooperation’ into Kerala’s school curriculum, the proposal did not materialise. No other state has so far implemented ‘Cooperation’ as a curriculum subject.

The Ministry of Cooperation has stated that the initiative aims to improve awareness and understanding of the cooperative sector among students.

Initially, the topic will be introduced in Class Six, with plans to expand it to higher classes in the coming years. In parallel, skill-based courses related to the cooperative sector will also be developed for both school and college levels.

The curriculum and courses will be prepared by the newly established National Cooperative University.