RESPONSIVENESS TO MULTI-CULTURALISM: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF STUDENTS AND TEACHERS ON THE BASIS OF SCHOOL TYPE

India is a multi-cultural, multi-religious, multilingual country. Cultural values, customs and traditions make India unique amongst the nations of the world. It is vital to have awareness about various cultures. The world is facing numerous problems such as dissension and intolerance, destruction of the natural environment, wars and poverty, the role of culture particularly in education, cannot be over emphasized. It is now widely recognized that the integration of cultural heritage with the curriculum will make the young aware of the multicultural and pluralistic perspectives. The main purpose of the investigation was to study and compare the level of multi- culturalism awareness of secondary school students of three education boards. The sample comprised of secondary schools. Stratified random sampling technique was used for the selection of standard VIII students from each school. Total sample of students and teachers were 600 from all three educational boards – SSC, CBSE & ICSE. Multi- Culturalism Awareness Test for students was prepared by the researcher.The findings of the study showed that (a) Majority of the students (about three-fourth) belonging to all the three education boards, viz., SSC, CBSE and ICSE, demonstrates a moderate level of Multi-Culturalism awareness. (b) Majority of the teachers (about four-fifth) belonging to all the three education boards, viz., SSC, CBSE and ICSE, demonstrates a moderate level of Multi-Culturalism Awareness .The Multi- Culturalism Awareness Test mean score of students of the ICSE board was the highest followed by CBSE board and SSC board in that order. The findings implied that curriculum of the school board influenced Multi-Culturalism Awareness of students and hence schools affiliated to the SSC board need to modify their curriculum in order to enhance the Multi- Culturalism Awareness of students for a more peaceful society.