NEW DELHI: The Union government on Monday said that state governments can adopt or adapt NCERT textbooks or develop their own based on the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF).
In a written reply, Minister of State for Education, Annpurna Devi, said NCF is not a prescriptive document and is suggestive or recommendatory in nature.
To a question from Tamil Nadu MPs A Raja and A Ganeshamurthi on the number of states who have rejected the national curriculum of NCERT and have prepared their own curriculum through state agencies, the minister said that the NCF enables the federal structure of school education, with states ultimately setting their state or regional curricula, easily incorporating local elements.
Further, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 provides that states will prepare their own curricula (which may be based on the NCF for School Education (NCF-SE) prepared by the NCERT to the extent possible), incorporating state flavour and material as needed, she added.
In the exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (1) of Section 29 of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act, 2009, the central government has authorized the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) as the academic authority to lay down the curriculum and evaluation procedure for elementary education, and to develop a framework of national curriculum under clause (a) of sub-section (6) of Section 7 of the Act, the minister said.