Kerala: New textbooks will fill gaps left by NCERT, says minister Sivankutty

The Kerala government on Monday, 11 September said that it was the only state in the country to compile all the portions avoided by the NCERT from school textbooks and create a new textbook for students to study and appear for exams.

State General Education Minister V Sivankutty said the government took such a stand in accordance with Kerala's exemplary educational background.

He said this in response to a query in the state assembly from the UDF opposition with regard to implementation of the National Education Policy 2023.

Sivankutty said the policy has not been completely accepted in the country as Tamil Nadu has rejected it in entirety and Karnataka has only agreed to implement some portions of it.

Moreover, the National Council of Educational Research and Training has deleted a lot of things — like the assasination of Mahatma Gandhi and the alleged role of RSS in it, portions of the Mughal rule and empire in India, parts of Indian freedom struggle and some communal riots — from textbooks for classes 11 and 12, the minister claimed.

"So, we compiled all the deleted portions and created a new textbook. It is not a mere textbook, but a syllabus which students can study and take exams on," he said.

The supplementary textbooks were released by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in August this year.

While releasing the books, Vijayan had strongly criticised the NCERT for its omission of key portions from school textbooks and said that the move was with the political intention of creating a society rooted in hatred and animosity.