Sudha Murthy, Shankar Mahadevan join NCERT's 19-member panel to develop new textbooks

Eminent personalities from various fields, Sudha Murthy, chairperson of Infosys Foundation, and acclaimed singer-composer, Shankar Mahadevan, are among the 19 members elected by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to prescribe and review the National Curriculum Framework (NCF). This panel, full of specialists and scholars from different areas, aims to develop modern and pertinent textbooks for students, across the nation.

The National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC), which will be led by National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) chancellor MC Pant, will create textbooks for classes 3 to 12.

According to the terms of reference, the committee is tasked with developing textbooks and other teaching learning materials, which would then be published and used by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

"The NSTC will be assisted by Curricular Area Groups (CAGs) in the development of the teaching-learning material for each curricular area. These groups will include appropriate experts for the said subject, and will be formed by the chairperson and the co-Chairperson of NSTC, with the assistance of NCERT," PTI quoted the official as saying.

The committee will seek to integrate the curriculum with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) prepared by the steering group chaired by K Kasturirangan as part of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 implementation. While the final NCF-SE has been submitted to the Union Ministry of Education, it is yet to be made public. The framework's draft was released in April.

The committee is co-chaired by Manjul Bhargav, a professor of mathematics at Princeton University. Its other members include mathematician Sujatha Ramdorai, badminton player U Vimal Kumar, chairperson of Centre for Policy Studies MD Srinivas, and chairperson of Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti Chamu Krishna Shastry.

In May there was a significant uproar following the dropping of several topics and portions from the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks. The opposition led a barrage against the BJP-led Centre, accusing the government of nefarious 'whitewashing with vengeance'.

The heart of the controversy hinged on the fact that while the changes instigated as a component of the 'rationalisation exercise' were communicated, some controversial deletions were left undisclosed. This omission and lack of transparency led to allegations of a covert attempt to remove these portions without public knowledge.

Critics of the revisions alleged that the deletions were politically motivated and mounted accusations of ideological manipulation of the curriculum against the Centre.

Although the NCERT acknowledged that the omissions in the textbooks may have been unintentional, they declined to reverse the deletions. The NCERT said the removals were made based on the recommendations provided by experts.

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