THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The state government has decided to take a call on bringing out supplementary textbooks for higher secondary course to make up for the portions dropped by NCERT after examining the contents of the textbooks the council will provide for reprinting this year.
NCERT textbooks are used in the state for subjects like history, political science, economics, geography, and science in higher secondary. These are reprinted every year with the council’s nod. The textbooks for 2023-24 would be provided to the state for reprinting later this month.
“Last year, portions on Gujarat riots and Mughal rule were excluded from Class 12 textbooks as part of syllabus rationalisation. However, NCERT textbooks provided to Kerala for reprinting contained said topics,” said an official of the State Council for Educational Research and Training (SCERT).
The official said after getting the textbooks for the coming academic year, “We will examine the content in detail. If they contain the so-called dropped portions, the state would be well within its rights to direct government schools to teach the topics.”
‘State may have to bring out own version of textbooks’
Last year too the state had adopted the same method for portions ‘rationalised’ by NCERT. However, the official said the state cannot make any changes to NCERT textbooks as they are obtained through copyright agreement. It is only allowed to reprint them.
Meanwhile, the committee overseeing the revamp of the state’s school curriculum had put the revision of higher secondary textbooks on hold for the time being. This was under the premise that no drastic changes were expected to NCERT textbooks for the next few years.
However, with NCERT periodically altering portions, allegedly with political intentions, its state counterpart will be forced to step in. “The curriculum revision process is currently focusing on bringing out new textbooks for up to Class 10. Going by the emerging situation, the state will have to bring out its version of higher secondary textbooks at least in subjects like history and sociology where sweeping changes are being made,” the official said.
Tinkering with texts
2022: Portions on the 2002 Gujarat riots and the Mughal period dropped
2023: Details about brief ban on RSS by then government after Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination removed.
Paragraphs that said Gandhi’s quest for Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists, dropped
Supplementary texts
The state had introduced supplementary textbooks earlier as well. A separate textbook on Kerala History brought out by SCERT, was prescribed for Higher Secondary students after curriculum revision in 2014-15. This was after complaints that the NCERT History textbooks were inadequate for students to understand the state’s history and culture.