Education Ministry Directs NCERT To Revise Textbooks Annually

The Ministry of Education directed the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) to review the textbooks and update them annually before the beginning of the academic session. Currently, there is no provision for the annual review of textbooks by the NCERT, however, new textbooks are printed every year.

As per the ministry’s official, the NCERT has been directed to update the content before a student buys a book ahead of the new session. The official explained the rationale and said that the NCERT books once published should not remain the same and new changes or facts have to be added. New and evolving topics for instance Artificial Intelligence (AI) need to be incorporated into the curriculum.

According to the NCERT officials, the revision of textbooks and the inclusion of new concepts and content will take nearly two years. The revised NCERT textbooks will probably be available to all the classes by 2026.

Reportedly, the NCERT is developing textbooks based on the New Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023 as a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. Notably, NCERT has developed new textbooks for classes 3 and 6 this year.

The council revises and updates content from time to time but not annually to rationalize the syllabus and reduce pressure from the students. Since 2014 the syllabus has been revised Four times in 2014, 2017, 2022 and 2024.

Notably, in the last few years, NCERT has deleted several chapters and sections from the textbooks.

Deletion list from NCERT textbooks in 2022

• Class 12 textbook- “Themes in Indian History- Part II”: Chapter titled “Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (C. Sixteen-Seventeenth Centuries)”.
• Class 12 – World history books: Chapters “Contemporary World Politics”, “The Cold War Era” and “US Hegemony in World Politics”
• Class 12 – “Politics in India Since Independence”: Topics – “controversies regarding Emergency” and “Gujarat riots”
• Class 11 – “Themes in World History”: Chapters on “The Central Islamic Lands”, “The Confrontation of Cultures” and “The Industrial Revolution”
• Class 8 – Chapter on “India After Independence”
• Class 10, Chapters on “Democracy and Diversity”, “Popular Struggles and Movements” and “Challenges to Democracy”
• Class 12, “Themes in Indian History Part III”: NCERT has dropped a “Brahmin” reference to Nathuram Godse, Gandhi”s assassin. The sentence read as –He was the”editor of an extremist Hindu newspaper”—was also removed.
• The Class 7 textbook, Our Pasts-II, Table on achievements of Mughal emperors including Humayun, Shah Jahan, Akbar, Jahangir, and Aurangzeb was also removed.
• Class 6 history textbook, “Our Pasts – I, chapter “Kingdom, Kings and Early Republic”. “, Sections to –the hereditary nature of varnas, classification of people as untouchables, and rejection of the varna system – were also removed.
• Class 12 Political Science textbook “Politics in India since Independence”, sentences to how Hindu extremists dislike Mahatma Gandhi. The deleted section read –“He (Gandhi) was particularly disliked by those who wanted Hindus to take revenge or who wanted India to become a country for the Hindus, just as Pakistan was for Muslims. They accused Gandhiji of acting in the interests of the Muslims and Pakistan. Gandhiji thought that these people were misguided. He was convinced that any attempt to make India into a country only for the Hindus would destroy India. His steadfast pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists so much that they made several attempts to assassinate Gandhiji,”.
• The government”s ban on Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS) after Gandhi”s assassination has also been removed. The removed section read –“Gandhiji”s death had an almost magical effect on the communal situation in the country. Partition- anger and violence suddenly subsided. The Government of India cracked down on organizations that were spreading communal hatred. Organizations like the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh were banned for some time. Communal politics began to lose its appeal,”.

NCERT textbook changes in 2024

• Class 12 political science textbook on the Ayodhya dispute has been revised to prioritise the Ram Janmabhoomi movement, take into account the 2019 Supreme Court ruling allowing the temple, and remove references to the December 6, 1992 demolition of the Babri Masjid.