A day after the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) announced its decision to remove the chapters on Mughal empire from the 12th class History book, the education body issued a clarification in response to the widespread criticism and controversy. NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said the chapters on Mughals have not been dropped and said the debate was unnecessary.
"As we explained last year as well, there has been a lot of learning loss due to the Covid pandemic and the students underwent a lot of trauma. To help stressed students, and as a responsibility to society and the nation, it was felt that the content load in textbooks should be reduced," Dinesh Prasad Saklani, Director of NCERT, told reporters.
He further added that "the debate is unnecessary. Those who don't know can check the textbooks..."
Saklani explained that the expert committee recommended that removing the said chapter would not impact the knowledge of the children, but rather unload an "unnecessary burden".
"We are working as per NEP (National Education Policy) 2020. This is a transition phase. NEP 2020 speaks of reducing the content load. We are implementing it. NCF (National Curriculum Framework) for school education is being formed, it will be finalized soon. Textbooks will be printed in 2024 as per NEP. We have not dropped anything right now", the NCERT chief was quoted as saying.
What sparked controversy?
NCERT response comes in wake of the chapters related to 'Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (C. 16th and 17th centuries)' being removed from the History book 'Themes of Indian History-Part 2' of Class 12. The change applies to all the schools that follow NCERT across the country from the new academic session 2023-24. As reported earlier, NCERT will remove some poems and paragraphs from the Hindi textbooks too.
Along with History and Hindi textbooks, 12th class Civics book has also been revised. Two chapters titled, 'American Hegemony in World Politics' and 'The Cold War Era' have been removed from the book. Continuing with the changes, two chapters namely, 'Rise of Popular Movements' and 'Era of One Party Dominance' from the Class 12th textbook 'Indian Politics after Independence' have also been removed. Changes have been made in Class 10th and 11th textbooks as well, such as chapters on 'Democracy and Diversity', 'Popular Struggles and Movements', and 'Challenges of Democracy' have been removed from Class 10th book 'Democratic Politics-2'. Chapters such as 'Central Islamic Lands', 'Clash of Cultures', and 'Industrial Revolution' have been dropped from Class 11th textbook 'Themes in World History'.
(Includes agency inputs)
