Book Review

Name of Book: Primary Standard Social Studies

Publisher: Cantab Publisher
Grade: 5th
Reviewer: Sir Raheel Abbas.

1. Introduction:
a. Publishing Company:
Cantab was founded after thoroughly evaluating the Pakistani education system by a
National Level Academicians under the supervision of Ph.D. holders, having more than ten
years of experience in the University Of Cambridge, UK. Its Hybrid Textbooks are approved
by PCTB, DCTE and DCRD in Punjab, KPK.
b. CEO:
The CEO of this publishing company is Prof Dr. Shazia Naeem. She’s completed her Ph.D.
from University of Cambridge UK. Her slogan is “One Curriculum, One Nation” and “SLO
based examination system”.
c. Salient Features of Hybrid books:
This book focuses on three components of learning i.e. Written, Taught, and Tested. It also
provides Student Learning Objectives along with SLO-based lesson plans, ppt, video lectures
and work-sheets which can be excessed by just scanning the QR code printed on each topic.
2. How to use this book:
Every page of this book contains mainly following materials:
a. QR-Code: Provides an audio and visual teaching lecture.
b. Blue colored box: Provides a home assessment task based on SLOs.
c. Pink colored box: Suggest a project or research task for better understanding.
d. Refresh the knowledge box: A short recap and assessment.
e. Extra links: Are available in every end of the chapter. ( links are not available on internet)
3. Appearance, Visuals and Supplementary Materials:
a. Dull colored cover page with and sticker showing the publishing company.
b. Binding is of good quality.
c. Good quality paper pages.
d. On the back-cover of book, Pakistan’s National Anthem is written with the lyricist/poet
name. (Missing point in many other famous book publishers.)
e. Pages contains a systematic and similar color/pattern.
f. Quality and relevant visuals are used which are also eye catching and informative, e.g.
relevant maps, illustrations, and photographs.
g. Book visuals support the text and benefits the visual learners, enhancing learning.
h. Auditory or below average learners are facilitated by video lectures by scanning QR-Code of
the topics.
i. A drawback is that the name of the book is missing on the spine of book.
4. Content Coverage and Organization of Hybrid book:
a. Starts with the basic rights (citizenship), then Culture, State and Government, History,
Geography part 1,2,3,4 and last Economics.
b. Every chapter contains Glossary, Key points, and Assessment pages.
c. SLOs are provided at the start of each chapter.
d. Each chapter is logically aligned.
e. The SLOs of this 5th grade social studies book is linked with the previous classed SLOs.
f. The topics overcome the diversity of students and respect the social and individual aspects
of every minority and majority.
5. Language and Accessibility:
a. Language level is simple and moderate and can be easily understood by the 5th grade
students.
b. Some topics are not clear, and are advanced terminologies for the particular grade.
Especially for the “Economics chapter”.
6. Conclusion and Summary:
a. This is a unique and more advanced textbook and is suitable for grade 5.
b. The book aims for single curriculum, single nation and is according to the Single National
Curriculum (SNC) 2020.
c. Some recommendations for improvement and some Positive/Negative aspect of this book
based on the comparison between Oxford’s textbook and Cantab’s hybrid book are below:
i. From History section, topic “Gandhara Civilization” [there is a lack of information
about Ashoka’s Rule and Buddhism, same content is quite detailed and efficiently
covered in Oxford’s textbook.]
ii. From History section, topic “Historical Personalities of Pakistan, Quaid-e-Azam”
[There is a printing mistake of placement of bullet points.]
iii. From History section, topic “Greek Civilization”, [beautifully covered with interesting
facts and information about this period.]
iv. From Geography section, “Part 3”, [content is relevant to real-life hazards and
provides awareness about panic situations and how to handle them.]
v. From Geography section, “Part 4”[ Bullet point no.3, there is a typing error “may”
should be replaced by “not” in order to gain the true meaning and sense of
sentence.]
vi. From Culture section, [ Detail is missing about Pakistan’s different Provinces culture]