With the aim of making studying enjoyable for students, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has released new books for Classes I and II with a special focus on play and an interactive approach to learning, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.

From now on, students of Class I and II will study Hindi from ‘Sarangi’, English from ‘Mridang’ and Math from ‘Joyful Mathematics’. These textbooks, released on Wednesday, July 5, by Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan, are based on the new National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. The books would soon be translated into other Indian languages and made available on the NCERT website.

“These new generation textbooks have been developed based on the NEP-2020 and National Curriculum Framework for Foundational Stage (NCF-FS) 2022.  Play is in the core of these textbooks, which will motivate children to learn with interest and joy,” Pradhan said at the 58th meeting of the General Council of NCERT, where the books were released.

Earlier, there were two English books. Now, there is only one. The Math books for Hindi medium have been named Anadmay-Ganit. “These will be helpful in the holistic development of children and ensure joyful learning at the foundational stage, as envisaged by NEP-2020,” Pradhan added.

The new generation textbooks in Hindi, English and Math for Classes I and II were the first to be rolled out based on NCF-FS-22. Books from Class III to XII will be rolled out in the next academic session.

Dinesh P Saklani, Director of the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), said that with the release of Class I and II books, the work of issuing text material for five classes of foundation level under NEP has been completed.