Time will tell who bears the brunt of the NCERT's decision to teach children only controversial content like corruption in the judiciary in its eighth-grade social science textbook, but 57 subject experts and academics were directly responsible for it.
They were responsible for the development of the textbook, its proper review, verification, and finalization. Experts believe that this appears to be a case of complete negligence, which was not properly scrutinized at any level.
While the ministry has no direct role in curriculum changes, it remains to be seen whether any informal consultations took place.
Three separate committees were formed to prepare this textbook under the new National Education Policy (NEP). The first committee was the Curriculum Development Committee, which consisted of 15 members, including the chairperson. It was chaired by Michel Danino and Sanjeev Sanyal, guest professors from IIT Gandhinagar.
A 23-member review committee was formed to oversee the work of the curriculum development committee. Furthermore, a 19-member National Curriculum and Teaching-Learning Materials Committee was formed to finalize the content included in the textbooks.
A senior retired NCERT official explained that a large committee is appointed to prepare the curriculum for any subject to ensure that there are no errors at any level.
At the same time, it is also monitored at multiple levels. At first glance, this case appears to be negligent. The content was included without due consideration, and later, unnoticed, and the book was published.
This is how NCERT prepares textbooks.
In the NCERT's system for preparing textbooks, a framework is first developed to determine what to teach children at each grade level. Later, the committee is tasked with preparing new textbooks based on that framework.
To achieve this, experts in relevant fields are included in the committee, based on the needs of the subject. They recommend research and factual material related to the subject to be included. Each topic is then discussed before inclusion.
Sources indicate that, as an autonomous institution, NCERT is given complete autonomy to decide what content to teach in the best interests of students. However, in many cases, the Ministry of Education is also consulted regarding this matter. This is done formally.
Key members of each committee:
Textbook Development Committee: Michel Danino, Aziz Mahdi, Alka Singh, MV Srinivas, Arshiwad Dwivedi, Kumari Rohini, Sandeepa Madan.
Review Committee: Aditi Mishra, Director, Principal, DPS Gurugram, Arpana Pandey, Jaya Singh, and Tanu Malik.
National Curriculum and Teaching Learning Materials Committee: Chairman- MC Pant (Chancellor, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration), Manjul Bhargava- Co-Chairman (Professor, Princeton University), Sudha Murthy, Shekhar Mande, Shankar Mahadevan, Sujatha Ramdorai.
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