THE clamour for reducing the curriculum load of higher secondary courses in the state has been on ever since the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) carried out the ‘rationalisation’ of school textbooks a few months ago.
However, the LDF government is treading cautiously as it feels the council’s move is not driven purely by academic interests alone.
It is of the view that there are political motives too. Academics said NCERT’s move to slash textbook content was aimed at avoiding the overlap of similar content included in other subject areas and reducing difficulty levels.
Portions that do not require much intervention from teachers and can be covered through ‘self-learning’ or ‘peer learning’ as well as content that is ‘not relevant' in the present context or ‘outdated’ have been
removed.
However, the move has courted controversy as NCERT dropped references to the 2002 Gujarat riots,
Cold War and Mughal courts from Class 12 books, led to allegations that the changes were carried out at the behest of the BJP-led government at the Centre.
As many as 12 subjects in the state higher secondary course follow NCERT textbooks. CBSE too had carried out syllabus rationalisation for the current academic year on the lines of NCERT.
However, the Kerala government is yet to take a final call on reducing the load on students even though
months have passed since the new academic year began.