73 academicians criticise attempts to discredit NCERT’s changes to syllabus

Hyderabad: As a counter to a number of academicians and educational experts alleging that the government and the NCERT are making unnecessary and potentially harmful modifications to NCERT textbooks, a joint statement was made on Thursday night by 73 academicians saying that there have been concerted attempts to trash the NCERT in the last three months. “This displays the intellectual arrogance of academicians who want students to study 17-year-old textbooks,” the statement claimed.

The vice-chancellors of Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), Tezpur University, Mahatma Gandhi Central University, The English and Foreign Languages University, Central University of Jharkhand, Ranchi University, Bangalore University, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University, the NIT Jalandhar director, the chairman of the Board of Governors, IIM Kashipur, the ICSSR secretary, and the NIOS chairman are among those who have signed the statement.

“The spectacle created by some people over the NCERT textbook row is disrupting the process of updating the curriculum,” said a group of academicians including the vice-chancellors of central universities, NIT directors, and IIM chairpersons.

"No merit in hue and cry of academicians over NCERT textbooks rationalisation" said UGC Chairman Jagadesh Kumar.

A number of academicians, including political scientists Yogendra Yadav and Suhas Palshikar, who served on the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) textbook development committee, asked the council to remove their names from textbooks due to several substantive revisions of the original texts.

“In the last three months, there have been deliberate attempts to discredit the NCERT, a leading public institution, and disrupt the critical process of curriculum revision. Academicians attempting to capture media attention through this name-withdrawal spectacle appear to have forgotten that textbooks are the result of collective intellectual engagement and rigorous efforts,” read the statement.

“The scholars who proposed changes to textbooks did not propose any epistemic rupture in the existing domain of knowledge but simply rationalised the course content to meet contemporary knowledge needs. In terms of who decides what is unacceptable and desirable, it is argued that every new generation has the right to make additions/deletions to the existing knowledge base,” it said.

The NCERT has stated that the revocation of any affiliation is out of the question because textbooks at the school level are generated on the basis of knowledge and understanding of a certain topic and individual authorship is never claimed at any point.

Textbook Development Committees were constituted by NCERT from time to time. NCERT acknowledges their academic contribution and therefore publishes their names in the textbooks. Here is the list of areas where the members contribute. https://t.co/szNxVfj5nm pic.twitter.com/uS22lO2jxm

— NCERT (@ncert) June 9, 2023

“They want to derail the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP 2020) and disrupt the updating of NCERT textbooks through misinformation, rumours, and false allegations. Their demand that students continue to study from 17-year-old textbooks rather than updated textbooks in sync with contemporary developments and pedagogical advancement reveals intellectual arrogance,” according to the joint statement.

The removal of key themes and sections from NCERT textbooks last month sparked outrage, with the opposition accusing the BJP-led government of whitewashing with vengeance.

While some modifications made as part of a rationalisation process were announced, some of the problematic removals were not disclosed. These sparked claims of a covert attempt to erase certain sections.

The NCERT had classified the absences as a probable error, but refused to reverse the deletions, claiming that they were based on expert recommendations.

It further said that the textbooks will be revised in 2024, the year the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) takes effect. However, it then reversed its position and stated that minor changes do not need to be notified.

Yogendra Yadav to NCERT

Yogendra Yadav replied to NCERT’s reply, claiming that the agency failed to answer the primary argument raised by him and Palshikar.

Reiterating his plea for their names to be removed, he stated that if NCERT can use their legal right to “distort” and “mutilate” the text, they must be entitled to utilise their moral and legal right to remove their names from a textbook that they do not support.

“If, as the NCERT claims, the name of the Textbook Development Committee is there to acknowledge our contribution, then we must be free to decline this generosity,” he remarked. He claims that the inclusion of his and Suhas Palshikar’s names in the current edition of the book gives the impression of sponsorship.

“Besides, the two of us are clearly the ‘writers’ of the signed letter that introduces each book. How can we be compelled to use a textbook that we no longer understand?” he said.

Sad to see that NCERT has chosen to respond to Prof @PalshikarSuhas and my letter through an unsigned statement.
Even more disappointing that it does not respond to the sole point we had made.

Our response (attached below with NCERT statement) reiterates our basic demand:… pic.twitter.com/j5md6pkJCY

— Yogendra Yadav (@_YogendraYadav) June 10, 2023

Deletions from textbooks

The NCERT has removed chapters from Class 10 textbooks on democracy and diversity, popular struggles and movements, and democratic difficulties. The deletions were from Book 2 of the social science textbook Democratic Politics for Class 10.

Previously, references to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination and the first education minister of independent India, Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, were omitted from NCERT’s Class 11 Political Science textbooks. Furthermore, references to Mughal history in NCERT textbooks were trimmed at various levels.

Inputs from PTI