NCERT textbooks: Why some Indian scholars are disowning books they wrote

Who really owns a textbook?

That question is asked in India, where a controversy about what children are taught in school has raged for weeks after reports of some subjects being removed from their textbooks.

The textbooks aren’t new – they were released earlier this year by the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) and are already being used in more than 20,000 schools. NCERT, an autonomous organization of the federal Department of Education, oversees curriculum changes and textbook content for children taking exams under the government-run Central Board of Secondary Education.

Topics eliminated include paragraphs on attempts by extreme Hindu nationalists to assassinate Mahatma Gandhi, and chapters on federalism and diversity.

NCERT also deleted content related to the 2002 Gujarat riots; removed a chapter on Mughal rulers in India; and shifted portions of the periodic table and theory of evolution to higher grades in scholarly books, drawing criticism.

The council had previously said the changes, first announced last year as part of a ‘streamlining’ of the curriculum, would not impact knowledge but would rather reduce the burden on children in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.

But now some academics who were part of committees that helped design and develop the older textbooks say they don’t want to be associated with the new curriculum.

On June 8, political scientists Suhas Palshikar and Yogendra Yadav — who were advisors on political science books originally published in 2006 for grades 9 through 12 — wrote to NCERT demanding their names be removed from the printed and digital editions of the books.

The researchers said they objected to the “numerous and irrational cuts and large deletions” because they saw “no pedagogical rationale” behind the changes.

NCERT issued a statement saying such a request was “out of the question” as it owned the copyright in all the material it published. When contacted, NCERT director DS Saklani referred the BBC to the statement on their website.

The deadlock deepened last week when more than 30 academics also wrote to NCERT asking for their names to be withdrawn from the Textbook Development Committees (TDC) listed in the books. The scientists argued that ownership of copyright does not entitle NCERT to make changes to the texts they authored.

But NCERT said the TDC’s role was “limited to advising on the design and development of the textbooks, or contributing to the development of their content and not beyond”.

It has also been clarified that the streamlined content will only apply to the current academic year and that a new series of textbooks will soon be developed based on new guidelines in line with the new national education policy.

The argument has pitted academics against one another. Critics argue that textbooks should serve as a source of introspection, and accuse NCERT of deleting bits that are not comfortable with the ruling Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. “The decision to ‘rationalize’ shows either that NCERT does not value its autonomy or that its leadership does not understand its place in a democracy,” wrote Peter Ronald DeSouza last week, calling for his name to be taken back.

But the NCERT has also received support. Last week, 73 academics issued a statement arguing that textbooks are in dire need of an update.

“[The critics’] The demand is that students continue to learn with 17-year-old textbooks rather than updated textbooks. In their quest to advance their political agenda, they are willing to jeopardize the future of the Crores [tens of millions] of children across the country,” they said.

Supporters include the head of India’s renowned Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and the head of the country’s university regulator, the University Grants Commission (UGC).

“Control should be commended as long as it is based on hard facts and evidence. Selective reading and mischaracterizations do not create transparency or accountability, but undermine it,” wrote JNU Vice Chancellor Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, arguing that the media had reinforced much “unverified information” on the topic.

Controversies over textbook revisions are nothing new in India – both national and state levels, different governments have often attempted to introduce or withdraw changes consistent with their ideological beliefs. Most scholars also advocate regular reviews of books to update information and balance content and learning outcomes.

However, critics say that this review should be transparent and holistic.

“Textbooks, as the title describes, have a sacred place in the educational system. Both teacher and student rely on them as the first authentic source of approach to a subject,” says Mr. Palshikar.

NCERT textbooks are heavily scrutinized as they are used by thousands of schools across the country. The books also serve as a reference for candidates taking competitive exams. “So the catchment area for these books is huge,” says Mr. Palshikar.

Experts say the job of any well-designed curriculum is to immerse students in topics that stimulate discussion and allow them to encounter questions relevant not only to their other academic achievements but also to their lives.

But when there is an “indiscriminate deletion of some paragraphs and sentences,” the continuity of reasoning in the textbook is destroyed, seriously hampering the learning process, says Mr Palshikar.

He adds that they also object to the current deletions because it is not clear what NCERT’s consultation process was like. “Our only criticism is that if you have consulted someone else, their names and not our names will be put in the book.”

NCERT commissioned its own faculty members and external experts to assess the books in question, who eventually recommended the changes.

The process considered five general criteria: the overlap of content between different subjects in the same class; similar content in lower or upper school in the same subject; difficulty levels; Content that is easily accessible to children and “does not require much intervention from teachers.” And finally, content “that is not relevant in the present context”.

Relevant information that was removed or streamlined was included — “either in the same subject in different classes or in a different subject in the same class,” wrote four members of the council’s textbook team in an article in the Indian Express.

Therefore, the periodic table was not completely removed from the 9th and 10th grade textbooks, but was instead reassigned to the 11th grade textbook. Mughal history was not entirely eliminated from the curriculum. And Darwin’s theory of evolution is covered in the sixth chapter of the 12th grade textbook.

“No scientific theory is absolute – it can be challenged. The recent debates that have challenged Darwin’s theory of evolution must also be part of the curriculum,” wrote JNU’s Ms. Pandit.

However, some experts believe that such “arbitrary” changes do more harm than good.

Even UGC chief Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar, who is broadly in favor of the streamlining, agrees with some of the criticisms, particularly around science classes.

“Global practice is that students are taught subjects such as evolution, the periodic table and sources of energy before they graduate from 10th grade,” he wrote this week, but added that NCERT’s intentions should not be questioned.

Mr Palshikar points out that the argument is made against the background of a major brain drain in India’s state-funded education system.

“I think that higher education in India has long since lost its soul, especially in the humanities and social sciences due to the pressure to find jobs. The fundamental purpose of higher education — to question and explore — has been lost,” he says.

“We are currently in the middle of a very small debate in comparison.”

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