India’s education ministry tells NCERT to review textbooks every year

India's Education Ministry has told NCERT to check textbooks every year before printing new ones for each academic year. This will make sure any needed changes are made in time.

The NCERT releases new textbooks annually before the start of the academic year. Although there isn't a set requirement to review textbooks each year, the Council has been updating content since 2017. In 2022-2023, significant changes were made as part of a syllabus revision in order to easestudent stress during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The Ministry has told the NCERT that books should be reviewed on a yearly basis. They are soon going to put that system in place. It is important that when a student buys a book ahead of the new session it has to be the updated version of that book,” said an official, as quoted by ANI.

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Explaining the reason behind it, the official said, “NCERT books once published should not remain the same for many years. They should be reviewed every year before printing and if any changes have to be made or some new facts have to be added, they should be included in the books. For instance, topics like Artificial Intelligence (AI) that are evolving. So far, there had been no mandate of yearly review of the textbooks.”

As per the official mentioned, it will require a minimum of two years to publish textbooks for all classes in accordance with the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF).

This year, NCERT is updating textbooks to match the new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) from last year, following the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.

So far, only new textbooks for classes 3rd and 6th have been released in line with the NCF. The revisions include hefty changes in History, Political Science, and Sociology textbooks. Some topics like Babri Masjid, Hindutva politics, the 2002 Gujarat riots, and minorities have been removed.

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Instead, references to Article 370's abrogation and replacing "Azad Pakistan" with "Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK)" have been added. Additionally, a paragraph redefining the Left has been revised to focus on state regulation over free competition.

(With inputs from agencies)