CBSE Issues Guidelines On Use Of NCERT Textbooks in Schools
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has issued fresh guidelines regarding using NCERT textbooks and other supplementary books by private publishers in schools. The proposed amendment has been made under Chapter 2 of the affiliation Bye-Laws 2018 concerning the use of textbooks by schools.
As per the guidelines, for classes I to VIII schools are strongly advised to follow NCERT/SCERT textbooks. However, schools are allowed to use supplementary material as per the need for education purposes which has to align with the NCF-FS and NCF-SE. The CBSE directed further that the supplementary material used by the schools must aim to contain the essential core material with other methods including discussion, analysis, examples, and applications.
Read also: “It Shows India In A Negative Light”, NCERT On Removing Cartoon From Class 12th Textbook
For classes IX to XII, CBSE directed schools to mandatorily follow the NCERT textbooks which are prescribed in the CBSE curriculum. It further stated that for those subjects in which NCERT or SCERT books are not available, CBSE books that are uploaded on the website must be followed. For these groups of classes, schools are permitted to use supplementary materials as per the requirement. The guidelines also prescribe to use the Digital Content to augment the textbooks teaching. However, both the supplementary material and digital content used in schools must align with the NCF-SE, the CBSE said.
The Central Board directed to take extra care while using the supplementary material, digital content, and books of private publishers. These materials used to supplement education must not carry such content that hurts the feelings of any class, community, gender, or religious group in society, CBSE directed to schools under the fresh guidelines.
However, earlier schools were allowed to use the books published by private publishers. There was no binding order to use textbooks published by the NCERT or SCERT books in schools.
A recent debate emerged on using the NCERT textbooks compulsorily in schools after the Delhi Education Department issued a circular to schools to use the NCERT or SCERT textbooks.
