The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), in order to facilitate speedy recovery of the learning continuum in students, has taken a step towards rationalisation of school textbooks. Union Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi said on Monday, July 18, that the move was aimed at compensating for the loss of time due to prolonged school closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.
She made the statement in response to a written question in the Lok Sabha. "During the COVID-19 pandemic situation, students across the stages of school education have struggled a lot to continue their learning through online and other modes. Also, concerns related to curriculum load including the content load spread over syllabi and textbooks have been raised from different corners," Devi said, as per a PTI report.
"Further, National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 states that the reduction in content and increased flexibility of school curriculum and the renewed emphasis on constructive rather than rote learning must be accompanied by parallel changes in school textbooks. With a view to facilitate speedy recovery in students' learning continuum and compensating time loss, the NCERT took a step towards the rationalisation of textbooks across the stages and subject areas," the minister added.
"Overlapping with similar content included in other subject areas in the same class, similar content included in the lower or higher class in the same subject, difficulty level, content that is easily accessible to children and does not require much intervention from the teachers and can be learnt through self-learning or peer learning, content that is not relevant in the present context or outdated and taking care of the learning outcomes already developed across the classes, are among the criteria adopted for rationalisation of the content load," she explained.
Last month, the NCERT had removed portions about the 2002 Gujarat riots, Emergency, Cold War, Naxalite movement and Mughal courts from its Class XII textbooks, among other subjects, as a part of its syllabus rationalisation exercise, as per the PTI report.
