New Delhi: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) consulted 25 external experts to carry out its syllabus rationalisation exercise as part of which it spiked portions on Mughals, Mahatma Gandhi, his assassin Nathuram Godse, reference to Hindu extremists, and the 2002 Gujarat riots among others from school textbooks.
According to a written response to a Lok Sabha question, dated July 18, 2022, groups of such experts of two to five each were engaged by the seven subject departments of the NCERT, whose “in-house experts” were also involved in the process which has sparked a controversy with the Opposition parties and prominent scholars questioning the deletions.
Among the most contested deletions are from History and Political Science textbooks for which the NCERT consulted five and two external experts respectively, according to the answer in response to a question by NCP MP Mohammed Faizal. One round of consultation each was held with the experts, added the reply.
In the case of History, the five experts who were consulted are Umesh Kadam, who is a professor of History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a member secretary at the Indian Council for Historical Research; Hind College associate professor (History) Dr Archana Verma; Delhi Public School RK Puram teachers (Head of Department of History) Shruti Mishra, and two Delhi-based Kendriya Vidyalaya teachers Krishna Ranjan and Sunil Kumar.
Some of the experts who were consulted for NCERT book revisions. Some of the experts who were consulted for NCERT book revisions.
According to the Lok Sabha response by the Ministry of Education, for Political Science, the NCERT held two round of consultation with four experts: Vanthangpui Khobung, who is an assistant professor of Political Science at the NCERT’s Regional Institute of Education in Bhopal; Maneesha Pandey who teaches Political Science at Hindu College; and school teachers Kavita Jain and Sunita Kathuria.
In the case of Sociology, three rounds of consultation were held with four external experts: Manju Bhatt, a former professor with the Department of Education in Social Science, NCERT; Hindu College associate professor of sociology Achala Pritam Tondon; Seema Banerjee who teaches sociology at Delhi’s Laxman Public School and Abha Seth, who also teachers the same subject at the DAV Public School at Vasant Kunj.
“Aside from NCERT in-house experts, NCERT has informed that they seek expertise of subject experts from Universities/Organisations and practicing teachers in all its activities related to Research, Development, Training and Extension for wider consultation,” the ministry said in response to the Lok Sabha MP’s question on why it did not consult social scientists associated with NCERT to carry out the rationalisation.
The NCERT also held a consultation meeting with 16 teachers nominated by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to discuss the rationalisation exercise, done in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, done across the subject areas, the ministry added.
In June 2022, the NCERT made public a list of changes and deletions in the reprinted textbooks that came into the market recently. However, many deletions, including the ones on Mahatma Gandhi, were not notified and brought to the light by The Indian Express recently. The factors cited by the NCERT behind the deletions include content which are “overlapping”, “not relevant or outdated in the present context”, “difficult”, “easily accessible to children and can be learned through self-learning or peer-learning”.
Agencies