New Delhi (TIP)- The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) dropped some references to the Babri Masjid, the politics of Hindutva, the 2002 Gujarat riots, and minorities, in its political science textbook for Class 12 that will come into effect from this academic session, adding to a growing list of textbook changes and updates on sensitive topics in recent years.
The changes were made public by the body on its website on Thursday, April 4. The NCERT textbooks are taught in schools under the Central Board of Secondary Education, to which roughly 30,000 schools in India are affiliated.
To be sure, references to the same subjects might occur at other places in the textbook.
NCERT officials did not respond to requests seeking comment.
In chapter 8, Recent Developments in Indian Politics, references to the “Ayodhya demolition” was dropped.
“What is the legacy of the Ram Janambhoomi movement and the Ayodhya demolition for the nature of political mobilisation?” was changed to “What is the legacy of the Ram Janmabhoomi movement?”
“To bring the initial questions in synchronisation with internal latest changes made in the chapter,” was the rationale offered by the body.
In the same chapter, reference to the Babri Masjid and the politics of Hindutva were dropped.
The earlier paragraph was – “Fourth, a number of events culminated in the demolition of the disputed structure at Ayodhya (known as Babri Masjid) in December 1992. This event symbolised and triggered various changes in the politics of the country and intensified debates about the nature of Indian nationalism and secularism. These developments are associated with the rise of the BJP and the politics of ‘Hindutva’.”
This was changed to – “Fourth, the centuries old legal and political dispute over the Ram Janmabhoomi Temple in Ayodhya started influencing the politics of India which gave birth to various political changes. The Ram Janmabhoomi Temple Movement, becoming the central issue, transformed the direction of the discourse on secularism and democracy. These changes culminated in the construction of the Ram Temple at Ayodhya following the decision of the constitutional bench of the Supreme Court (which was announced on November 9, 2019).”
NCERT said in the document that the content was updated as per “latest development in politics”.
In chapter 5, Democratic Rights, a reference to the Gujarat riots, was dropped in the caption to a news collage.
The earlier version was – “Do you notice references to the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) in the news collage on this Page ? These references reflect the growing awareness of human rights and struggles for human dignity. Many cases of human rights violations in diverse fields, for instance, Gujarat riots, are being brought to the public notice from across India.”
Source: HT
Tag: NCERT
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NCERT syllabus: Mentions of Babri, Gujarat riots, Hindutva clipped
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NCERT forms new panel for content in school textbooks
New Delhi (TIP)- NCERT has constituted a committee including author and Infosys Foundation chair Sudha Murthy, singer Shankar Mahadevan, and economist and member of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council Sanjeev Sanyal, to finalise the curriculum, textbooks and learning material for classes 3 to 12.
The 19-member National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) will be headed by National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) chancellor MC Pant, according to an internal note of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), a copy of which has been seen by HT.
The committee will work to align the curriculum with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) developed by the K Kasturirangan-led steering committee as a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. While the final NCF-SE has already been submitted with the Union ministry of education, it is yet to be released in the public domain. The draft of the framework was released in April.
According to the note, NSTC will be empowered to develop the school syllabus, and teaching and learning material for classes 3 to 12; it will also work on “appropriately revising” the existing textbooks of classes 1 and 2 to ensure a smooth transition to NCF. “The textbooks and other learning material developed and finalised by NSTC shall be published and distributed by the NCERT,” the note added.
The committee is co-chaired by Manjul Bhargav, a professor of mathematics at Princeton University. It’s other members include mathematician Sujatha Ramdorai, badminton player U Vimal Kumar, chairperson of Centre for Policy Studies MD Srinivas, and chairperson of Bhartiya Bhasha Samiti Chamu Krishna Shastry.
A senior ministry official said that experts from different domains have been selected as members of the committee, and that its chairperson will now constitute various Curriculum Area Groups (CAGs) by engaging different subject experts.
“ CAGs will assist NSTC to develop textbooks and learning material for each of the subjects included in the syllabus. NSTC will be free to invite other experts for advice, consultation, and support,” this person added, requesting anonymity. Chamu Krishna Shastry said that 11 CAGs will be constituted to work on the 11 domains mentioned in NCF-SE including mathematics, science, physical education, and social sciences. “More than 1,000 subject experts will be engaged in the process of curriculum development and textbook designing.”
Shastry added that the committee will aim to complete the process by the end of this academic year so that the new textbooks will be ready before the beginning of next session. To support the functioning of NSCT, NCERT has also constituted a National Oversight Committee (NOC) that will be chaired by the chancellor, Central University of Punjab, Jagbir Singh.
“NOC will provide detailed orientation to the members of NSCT and others including CAGs. It will ensure full alignment of textbooks, syllabus and teaching learning material to NCF-SE,” said a senior NCERT official who asked not to be identified.
Source: HT -
NCERT drops Gujarat riots, Mughal courts from books
New Delhi (TIP)- The NCERT has removed portions of the 2002 Gujarat riots, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement and Mughal courts from its Class 12 textbooks as part of “syllabus rationalisation,” citing “overlapping and irrelevant” as reasons. Many of these changes were announced earlier this year when the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) rationalised its syllabi in April. Besides schools under the CBSE, some state boards also use NCERT textbooks.
Listing the changes, the NCERT, in a note, said: “The content of the textbooks has been rationalised for various reasons, including overlapping with similar content in other subject areas in the same class and similar content included in the lower or higher classes on the same subject.” In the Class 12 political science textbook, pages on ‘Gujarat Riots’ have been excluded from the chapter titled ‘Recent Developments in Indian Politics’. The mention of the National Human Rights Commission report on the 2002 violence and the “raj dharma” remark by then PM Atal Bihar Vajpayee have been dropped too. Chapters on Mughal courts in a history textbook, a poem on the Dalit movement and a chapter on the Cold War are among the exclusions from the political science textbook. In Class 10, the excluded chapters include verses of poet Faiz Ahmed Faiz. Also, chapters titled ‘Democracy and Diversity’, ‘Popular Struggle and movements’ and ‘Challenges to Democracy’ have been dropped. In the social science textbook for Classes VII and VIII, references to Dalit writer Omprakash Valmiki have been removed. In the Class VII textbook titled ‘Our Pasts-2’, the topic ‘Emperors: Major campaigns and events’, has been removed. Source: PTI