A day after questions were raised on the new NCERT history and other textbooks because several chapters and references to some topics were omitted, the head of the council, Professor Dinesh Prasad Saklani, called it “useless”. He said these “cuts” were discussed in detail and explained last year, when these were announced to ease the burden on students due to the Covid stress.
“This debate is unnecessary for now. Last year, for three months, we gave a detailed explanation on this. Everyone accepted it. There is no need for this controversy,” said Saklani. “There was a standard procedure. It was a critical assessment of the experts. It is not about my opinion. Whatever opinion is given by the experts should be followed.
Speaking specifically on the chapter on Mughal era courts being removed from the syllabus, the NCERT director said, “The Mughals of the 16th and 17th centuries had two chapters on this subject. A larger chapter, which is more inclusive, has been kept and that too was the recommendation of the expert committee.
Last year, as part of the NCERT’s exercise to reduce the workload, the said chapter was dropped. Asked why it was not brought back, Saklani said it was because new textbooks were under process.
“We are starting work on the NEP (National Education Policy) 2020, so we did not want to do another exercise only for a short period. Our NCF (National Curriculum Framework) for the school curriculum is almost ready. New textbooks will be written on its basis. Those books will take care of the syllabus from class 3 to 12. For this short period, the entire exercise could not be repeated,” he said.
In the context of the purification of Gandhi, Godse and the RSS
Saklani defended the removal of references to the ban on the RSS following Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination, referred to his killer Nathuram Godse as “a Brahmin from Pune” and talked about Gandhi’s Hindu-Muslim unity that would lead to “Hindu Anger arose among “extremists”.
“Experts thought that if we have to reduce the material load, then the number of questions that can be asked should also be reduced. If some section invites more questions, then it was thought to be cut,” Saklani he said.
“Whatever pattern is emerging is because we wanted to reduce the number of questions coming from students. This was the only argument used across subjects and classes. They thought that if it is not taught, there is no harm to the students and their knowledge cannot be curbed,” he said when asked whether such curtailment would invite criticism along the lines of “saffronisation” of history. Is.
“We have also cut a poem by Nirala in Hindi books. Pages of ancient history have also been removed. The lines on hunting and gathering have been removed. Not only the chapter, some lines have been removed from other places as well. Some paragraphs have been deleted as they could have increased the question weight. Some boxes have been removed. And this has been done in all subjects,” he said.
In fact, he said, some references to the Emergency imposed under Indira Gandhi have even been removed from the Class 12 sociology textbook.
history ‘distorted’
Asked about the ‘rationalisation’ of history books, Saklani said the new textbooks under NEP 2020 will provide all the answers.
“Since we are going to implement NEP and all the books are being prepared afresh, then everything will become clear,” he added. “NEP talks about rootedness in Indian culture, experiential learning and also addresses local issues. Therefore, keeping these points in mind, not only history but all subjects will be taken care of. All the experts will be invited, and there will be textbook committees, and they will look into it.”
He said: “Whatever the NEP recommends, the NCF will have it. Textbooks will be prepared on the basis of the NCF. Certainly, they will address the issues (distortion or incompleteness of history). Whatever the NEP has instructed us , we will follow that. It is our duty to follow that policy. Whatever is right for that will be done.”
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