Exercise to revise text books by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

Exercise to revise text books by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)

65 Shri A. D. Singh:

Will the Minister of Education be pleased to state:

(a) whether National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has omitted and added many chapters in the text books as a part of its rationalization exercise;

(b) the rationale behind it;

(c) whether it is being done on the recommendations of any Committee; and

(d) if so, the composition and the mandate of the Committee?

(a) to (d) A statement is laid on the Table of the House.

STATEMENT REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (a) TO (d) OF THE RAJYA SABHA STARRED QUESTION NO. 65 ANSWERED ON 26.07.2023 ASKED BY SHRI A. D. SINGH, HON’BLE MP REGARDING ‘EXERCISE TO REVISE TEXT BOOKS BY NCERT’.

(a) The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has informed that rationalization of NCERT textbooks was done in 2021. During this process only a few chapters, either fully or partially, as per the suggestions of experts were omitted. However, not a single chapter was added because the purpose was to reduce the content load.

(b) Due to the COVID- 19 pandemic situation, students across all the stages of school education have faced considerable challenges to continue their learning through online and other modes. In the normal course of things, concerns related to curriculum load including the content load and textbooks, are raised from different corners. In addition, the Parliamentary Standing Committee too has raised concerns about the content overload in the textbooks. In order to facilitate speedy recovery from the learning losses, in their learning continuum and compensate for the time loss, NCERT took steps towards the rationalization of textbooks across the stages and subject areas.

(c) & (d) Committees comprising 8- 10 experts in the respective area were constituted for rationalising the content in different subjects across classes. These committees comprising of NCERT faculty members, in consultation with practising teachers from Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) and experts, analysed the textbooks across subjects and classes for rationalising the content. Specific criteria were also developed for the rationalisation of content load, which is given below:

• Overlapping with similar content included in other subject areas in the same class.
• Similar content included in the lower or higher class in same subject.
• High difficulty level.
• Content, which is easily accessible to children and does not require much intervention from the teachers and can be learned through self-learning or peer-learning.
• Content, which is not relevant in the present context or outdated.
• Learning outcomes already developed across the classes are taken care of in this rationalization exercise.

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