The Ministry of Education, Government of India, has announced that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is preparing new textbooks. This decision is taken as a result of the questions raised against the defamatory/ insulting contents available in the history textbook. To resolve these questions, Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, Minister of Education has published a statement. As per this statement, the new textbooks will be prepared after extensive research and this will also come under the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The recent announcement of New NCERT Textbooks was announced in reply to the questions asked by Shri Anil Desai, Member of Rajya Sabha. He asked three questions to the Minister of Education. The first question was whether the Government is aware of the content that is available on the textbooks to colleges/ universities which tends to insult the true history of India. Second question was if the Government of India is aware of the issue, whether there is any study/ research initiated to identify such materials discussing such topics in detail. He also demanded a list of the experts included in the study. The last question was regarding the details on when the report was recieved by the Government and the action taken to rectify it.
Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank, The Current Minister of Education, Department of School, Education and Literacy has answered these questions. These were answered through the released statement (Rajya Sabha Unstarred Questions No. 376) to be answered on February 04, 2021, titled “Content of Text Books”.
He stated that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is aware of the derogatory information available in the history textbook. The NCERT has informed that the present textbooks in History were prepared based on the National Curriculum Framework 2005. The Council is now working on the preparation of new textbooks. Refer to the snapshot of the statement below to know the information in detail.
The preparation of the new books is under the pursuance of National Education Policy (NEP). As per the statement for Shri Pokriyal, “the curriculum framework for school education will be prepared by development of new textbooks in all subjects including History”. These new textbooks will be prepared after extensive research. Also, the books will be prepared only after the consultation of subject experts. In addition, Higher Education will also follow the National Education Policy 2020.
