NCERT Chief on Removal of Text on Gandhi
No excerpts about Gandhi were included in the rationalisation note (File Photo)
Several crucial chapters were truncated as a result of the rationalisation, according to Saklani, but he said it should not be “blown out of proportion” and all changes that have been made to the textbooks will be announced within a few days
In a controversy surrounding the removal of certain content related to Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination from the NCERT textbooks without any notification, NCERT chief Dinesh Saklani said it could have been an “oversight” that some deletions weren’t announced in last year’s rationalisation exercise.
Several crucial chapters were truncated as a result of the rationalisation, according to Saklani, but he said it should not be “blown out of proportion” and all changes that have been made to the textbooks will be announced within a few days.
Saklani’s comments come after the new NCERT textbooks hit the market, and it was found that more contents were missing than the ones in the curriculum rationalization booklet from last year.
Some of the texts missing from the class 12 political science textbook for the new academic session are- “Gandhiji’s death had magical effect on communal situation in the country”, “Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists” and “Organisations like RSS were banned for some time”
“Subject expert panel had recommended dropping certain texts on Gandhi. It was accepted last year only. It was not mentioned in the list of rationalised content may be due to oversight. It should not be blown out of proportion,” Saklani said.
“Nothing can be omitted overnight, there are proper procedures and professional ethics have to be followed. There is nothing intentional behind it,” he added.
According to Saklani, no curriculum trimming has taken place this year, and the syllabus was rationalised in June.
When asked whether there are more such contents for other subjects and classes that were dropped and that wasn’t announced as part of the rationalisation process, the chief of NCERT responded, “We are looking into it”.
“If more such contents are found, which were missed due to oversight we will notify them shortly… mostly in a day or two,” he said.
Last year as part of its “syllabus rationalisation” exercise, the NCERT dropped certain portions from the course including lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, the Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement, among others from its textbooks citing reasons like “overlapping” and “irrelevant”.
No excerpts about Gandhi were included in the rationalisation note.
The Congress called the government’s action “whitewashing with a vengeance”.
On the website of NCERT, there is a note stating “In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was felt imperative to reduce the 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.” “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 adds.
— with PTI inputs
Read all the Latest Education News here
