Believers in the humanising role of literature will be heartened by the results of a new National Institute of Education survey. It shows that the subject extends beyond canonical traditions, and is of relevance in the real world. The survey examined teachers' beliefs towards literature education and their teaching practices, even as a revised syllabus for the subject took effect last year. The survey of 232 literature teachers from 47 secondary schools is the first of its kind.

The results of the survey reaffirm the role of the humanities in general, and literature in particular, in the progress of civilisation. Literature, like life itself, is a product of differences. Different plots, different characters, different perspectives and different denouements on the page or the screen reflect the unpredictable but unavoidable contours of change in human life.