The Punjab and Haryana high court has granted a month to the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to rectify numerous ambiguities and erroneous questions in its biology books for classes 11 and 12.
The directions came from the division bench comprising chief justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and justice Arun Palli while disposing of a public interest litigation filed by Chandigarh resident Dr Arvind Goyal.
Goyal, a doctor of medicine (MD) who runs a coaching institute, had informed the court that despite his three communiqués addressed to the NCERT since last year about the ambiguities in the biology books no action, except assurances, had been taken. He had submitted that students were facing hardships and were confused because of the errors.
Along with the plea, the petitioner had also attached the HT news report of March 3, 'NCERT fails to upload errata on biology text', highlighting how the NCERT had failed to rectify over 80 serious factual errors till date though the class-12 biology exam is scheduled for March 15 and All India Pre-Medical Test (AIPMT) for May.
The petitioner's counsel informed the court that the current academic session was almost over but necessary action would ensure that at least for the AIPMT and the next academic session, remedial measures were taken.
{{/usCountry}}The petitioner's counsel informed the court that the current academic session was almost over but necessary action would ensure that at least for the AIPMT and the next academic session, remedial measures were taken.
{{/usCountry}}The court observed that since almost six months had passed since the mistakes were brought to the notice of the NCERT that had wanted only three months to rectify them, this should be done in a month with the intimation to the petitioner.