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The NCERT consulted 25 external consultants and 16 CBSE teachers to perform its syllabus rationalisation train as a part of which parts on the Mughals, Mahatma Gandhi, his murderer Nathuram Godse, reference to Hindu extremists, the 2002 Gujarat riots and Maulana Azad amongst others had been dropped from faculty textbooks, according to the Education Ministry.
Dropping a number of subjects and parts from the NCERT textbooks has triggered an issue with the Opposition blaming the Centre of “whitewashing with vengeance”.
At the center of the row is the truth that whereas the adjustments made as a part of the rationalisation train had been notified, a few of these controversial deletions weren’t talked about in them. This has led to allegations a couple of bid to delete these parts surreptitiously.
The NCERT has described the omissions as a attainable oversight however refused to undo the deletions, saying they had been based mostly on the suggestions of consultants. It has additionally mentioned the textbooks are anyway headed for revision in 2024 when the National Curriculum Framework kicks in.
“Aside from NCERT in-house experts, NCERT sought the expertise of subject experts from Universities/Organisations and practising teachers in all its activities related to Research, Development, Training and Extension for wider consultation,” the Ministry had mentioned in response to a written query in Lok Sabha.
Among probably the most contested deletions are from historical past and political science textbooks for which the NCERT consulted 5 and two external consultants respectively.
“One round of consultation each was held with the experts, ” the Ministry had mentioned in its response.
For History, the 5 consultants who had been consulted are Umesh Kadam, a professor of History on the Jawaharlal Nehru University and a member secretary on the Indian Council for Historical Research, Hind College affiliate 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.
For the political science textbook, the NCERT held two rounds of session with 4 consultants. They had been Vanthangpui Khobung, an assistant professor of political science on the NCERT’s Regional Institute of Education in Bhopal; Maneesha Pandey who teaches the topic at Hindu College and college teachers Kavita Jain and Sunita Kathuria.
