In a bid to make National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) books easier to understand, Delhi Education Minister Manish Sisodia has written a letter to Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar. In the letter, Sisodia said, NCERT books are extremely text-heavy from Class 6 onward and appear to be meant for teachers, not students. He added that the council needs to re-think the idea of a text-book in its latest review.
Sisodia’s letter came in the context of a general council NCERT meeting on Tuesday. The meeting was attended by HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar, Secretary School Education, Anil Swarup, and Chairman NCERT, Hrushikesh Senapaty, along with education ministers of other states.
The council meeting had asked all states to submit their opinions after going through the content of books as they are undertaking the exercise of reviewing these textbooks.
Post his review of the NCERT books, the Delhi Education Minister said: “Overall upto 5th standard the books attempt to strike a connect with children, but from 6th standard onwards it becomes extremely text-heavy. Except for the book on “Social and Political Life” in Social Science it was not clear whether the books are meant for children or their teachers.
“In July 2016, our own survey found that 74 percent of children could not read a paragraph from their own textbooks,” he wrote in the letter.
Analysis
With the change in governments there has always been change in NCERT curriculum as the council is under central government. It’s important for the policymakers to understand that the books are revised in a manner that they suit a child’s needs and not the ideology of the ruling party.
