Gujarat school wants Blake’s poem replaced by Tagore’s

Ahmedabad-based Udgam School for Children has proposed that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) replace a William Blake poem in a Class 8 English textbook with that of one by Rabindranath Tagore.

According to the school located in Thaltej, Blake’s ‘The School Boy’, printed in the class 8 textbook of the National Council of Educational, Research and Training (NCERT), puts the school in bad light.

The school sent an e-mail in this regard to the board on Wednesday. The correspondence by Sujata Tandon, Principal, Udgam school, stated: “It is to bring to your kind notice that English NCERT book of Class 8, has a poem named The School Boy in Unit V by William Blake on page number 84-85. I would like the panel of experts to review the poem as it is not having high praise for the schools. I would like to substitute it by some other poem on school.

I have attached one for your consideration by an Indian author.”

Confirming the same, Manan Choksi, the executive director of the school, said, “Blake’s poem focuses on the downsides of formal learning and shows how going to school on a summer day takes away the joy. The boy in this poem is more interested in escaping his classroom. When CBSE is taking a step forward and asking for suggestions, schools, according to me, should not restrict to pointing out syntax errors but semantic errors as well.”