Hitting back at the academicians who expressed their displeasure over frequent revision of school textbooks in an “illogical manner”, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) on Friday dismissed the allegations as “baseless”, and called it a practice followed in the past as well.
Taking a strong objection to the move, a total of 33 academicians from prestigious colleges across India, recently wrote a letter to NCERT Director D.P. Saklani seeking removal of their names from the textbooks as advisors.
Meanwhile, as many as 107 professors, Vice Chancellors, Deans and teachers of different universities have come out in support of NCERT.
NCERT has confirmed that it is coming out with a new set of textbooks based on the recently-launched National Curriculum Framework for School Education. The current textbooks in which the contents have been rationalised to reduce the academic load is only a temporary arrangement.
“Given this, there is no merit in the hue and the cry of these academicians. The objective behind their grumbling seems to be other than academic reasons,” said M. Jagadesh Kumar, Chairman, University Grants Commission said.
Over 100 academicians and professors of different universities across the country have expressed similar views as him.
Kumar said that, in the recent past, the attacks by some “academicians” on NCERT for revising the textbooks are “unwarranted”.
The current textbook modifications are not the only ones carried out. NCERT has been revising textbooks from time to time in the past as well. NCERT is fully justified in carrying out the rationalisation of its textbook contents.
It has repeatedly stated that the revision of textbooks originates from various stakeholders’ feedback and suggestions, he added.
There are many academicians, teachers and professors who are against such changes in the NCERT school books.
NCERT was criticised by educationists and historians like Romila Thapar, Jayati Ghosh, Mridula Mukherjee, Apoorvanand, Irfan Habib and Upinder Singh.
Historians have said that removing history chapters from school textbooks is a divisive and partisan move. There has been a demand by historians to withdraw this decision.
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