NEW DELHI: While rationalising the syllabus during the pandemic, NCERT deleted portions on Mahatma Gandhi -“Gandhiji’s death had a magical effect on the communal situation in the country” and “Gandhi’s pursuit of Hindu-Muslim unity provoked Hindu extremists”-and RSS (“organisations like RSS were banned for some time”) from the Class XII political science textbook, but the exclusions were not notified.
A day after this was brought in public domain, NCERT director Dinesh Saklani on Wednesday said it could have been an “oversight” that some deletions were not announced in its rationalisation exercise last year.
There also indications that NCERT is digging in its heels on the issue and apart from notifying the changes, it can also field subject experts to justify them.
“We will notify them shortly,” said Saklani when asked if more content of other subjects and classes have been dropped, but not announced.
‘Nothing intentional about dropping texts’
NCERT director Dinesh Saklani said: “The subject expert panel had recommended dropping of certain texts on Gandhi. It was accepted last year only. It was not mentioned in the list of rationalised content due to oversight. It should not be blown out of proportion. Nothing can be omitted overnight, there are proper procedures and professional ethics have to be followed. There is nothing intentional,” he said.
Meanwhile, NCERT sources said in an internal meeting with the subject heads, the director had asked the team to prepare a note on rationalised portions which were not notified, but had been dropped from this year’s textbooks.
As part of its “syllabus rationalisation” exercise, NCERT cited “overlap” and “irrelevance” to drop certain portions from the course including lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War and Naxal movement from its textbooks.
A day after this was brought in public domain, NCERT director Dinesh Saklani on Wednesday said it could have been an “oversight” that some deletions were not announced in its rationalisation exercise last year.
There also indications that NCERT is digging in its heels on the issue and apart from notifying the changes, it can also field subject experts to justify them.
“We will notify them shortly,” said Saklani when asked if more content of other subjects and classes have been dropped, but not announced.
‘Nothing intentional about dropping texts’
NCERT director Dinesh Saklani said: “The subject expert panel had recommended dropping of certain texts on Gandhi. It was accepted last year only. It was not mentioned in the list of rationalised content due to oversight. It should not be blown out of proportion. Nothing can be omitted overnight, there are proper procedures and professional ethics have to be followed. There is nothing intentional,” he said.
Meanwhile, NCERT sources said in an internal meeting with the subject heads, the director had asked the team to prepare a note on rationalised portions which were not notified, but had been dropped from this year’s textbooks.
As part of its “syllabus rationalisation” exercise, NCERT cited “overlap” and “irrelevance” to drop certain portions from the course including lessons on Gujarat riots, Mughal courts, Emergency, Cold War and Naxal movement from its textbooks.
