Row after NCERT drops portions on Mahatma Gandhi, Hindu-Muslim unity, RSS ban from class 12 textbook
New Delhi, April 5: Among the texts missing from the class 12 political science textbook for the new academic session are "Gandhiji's death had a magical effect on the communal situation in the country," "Gandhi's pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists," and "Organisations like RSS were banned for some time."
However, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) asserts that no curriculum trimming has happened this year and that the syllabus was rationalised in June of last year.
The NCERT omitted lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War, and the Naxalite movement from its textbooks as part of its "syllabus rationalisation" operation last year, claiming "overlapping" and "irrelevant" as explanations.
There was no mention of Mahatma Gandhi in the rationalisation note.
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"The entire rationalisation exercise was done last year, there is nothing new which has happened this year," NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani informed. He did not, however, comment on the unannounced missing portions at the time of rationalisation.
"In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was felt imperative to reduce content load on students. The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 also emphasises reducing the content load and providing opportunities for experiential learning with creative mindset. In this background, the NCERT had undertaken the exercise to rationalise the textbooks across all classes and all subjects," a note by NCERT on its website read.
"The present edition is a reformatted version after carrying out the changes. The present textbooks are rationalised textbooks. These were rationalised for the session 2022-23 and will continue in 2023-24," it further read.
Among the reasons given for dropping subjects during rationalisation are: material based on genres of literature in textbooks and supplementary readers at various stages of school education; reducing curriculum load and exam stress in light of the pandemic's current state; content.
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- With inputs from agencies