This study was intended to suggest the desirable direction in the 7th national curriculum revision through the illustration analysis of the elementary science textbooks in the 6th national curriculum. The analysis system was composed of two categories, (1)the kind of illustrations (2)the .ole of illustrations The kind of illustrations was divided into five subcategories such as photograph, pictures, illustrations, cartoons and diagrams. And the role of illustrations was divided into four subcategories such as motive induction, guidance for experimentation, the presentation of data and the results of experimentation. Each sentence in the textbooks was considered as an analyzing units. The frequency and percentage of each category were counted and the rates were calculated. The findings could be summarized as follows: 1. The illustration in the primary science textbooks was mostly composed of photographs (87.1%). 2. The examination of the role of illustrations showed that the presentation of data was 46.2%, the guidance for experimentation 38.4%, the results of experimentation 8.6% and the motive induction 6.8% respectively. 3. In the domains of physical and chemical science, the role of guidance for experimentation was emphasized. But the biological and earth science domains showed high tendency of the presentation of data.