Representative image of school textbooks.
Credit: iStock photo
New Delhi: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will now conduct reviews of its textbooks annually, as per directives by the union ministry of education.
This will be a departure from norm as there now exists no mandate about the frequency of updating NCERT textbooks.
The curriculum body has been occasionally revising and updating content since 2017.
Recently, the NCERT had mounted a rationalisation exercise after the extended closure of schools due to the Covid pandemic. But the exercise was marred by accusations against the curriculum body of letting go of some key concepts.
Among the concepts that the NCERT had dropped from textbooks were the theory of evolution by Charles Darvin, the periodic table and the demolition of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, among other issues.
Officials of the curriculum body told news agency PTI that it is important that the textbooks are absolutely updated.
“The NCERT has been asked to conduct a review on a yearly basis and update them ahead of the beginning of the new academic session; they are soon going to put a system in place,” an official was quoted by PTI. The official added that textbooks, once published, should not remain untouched for many years.
Due to the announcement of the New Curriculum Framework (NCF) last year, the NCERT is currently in the process of developing textbooks according to the NCF. The new textbooks, officials said, will be available for all classes by 2026. Currently, NCERT has introduced new textbooks for classes 3 and 6.