Textbook revisions by NCERT driven by partisan agenda: 250 historians and educationists

Around 250 educationists and historians have criticised the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for its controversial decision to revise school textbooks. They said these revisions and deletions are driven by a divisive and partisan agenda.

The historians have demanded that NCERT roll back its decision to carry out these changes, including the most controversial excisions in chapters relating to Mughal history and details of the ban briefly imposed on the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) by the then government after the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

Romila Thapar, Jayati Ghosh, Mridula Mukherjee, Apoorvanand, Irfan Habib and Upinder Singh, among others, have started a signature campaign to protest against the decision and for its withdrawal.

The Democratic Teachers Front, an organisation of university-level teachers, said if the 'WhatsApp University' is given a free hand to run Indian schools, colleges and universities, then Indian democracy is in serious danger.

The NCERT says these changes have not been made to make anyone happy or angry.

NCERT Chief Dinesh Prasad Saklani told IANS that the changes have been made purely on the basis of expert advice. He said that new books for all classes on the basis of National Education Policy (NEP) will also be introduced and its work has been completed at the foundation level.

Saklani said that changes were not only made in History books, but also in books of other subjects to reduce the burden faced by students. He stated that the changes are not based on any particular person, event, period or institution.

Saklani added that this is not a big change and all of them were made last year, keeping the Covid-19 pandemic in view and the academic loss faced by students worldwide, at all levels.

In such a situation, NCERT decided to revise the course on the basis of experts' opinions to reduce the burden on students who would return to school after a long time, Saklani concluded.