At least 100 academics released a statement on Friday alleging that false propaganda was being spread against the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to derail the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020, marking another twist in an ongoing row over revision of school textbooks.
The development came two days after 33 academics wrote to NCERT saying that the recent rationalisation exercise of NCERT “jeopardised their creative collective effort” and asked for their names to be dropped from the books. These scholars were members of the textbook development committee for books drafted in 2006-07 based on the 2005 version of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and are currently in use.
The statement alleged the scholars who wanted their names dropped from the textbooks were trying to capture media attention, and had forgotten that textbooks are an outcome of collective intellectual engagement and rigorous efforts.
“The scholars who have suggested the changes in the textbook have not suggested any epistemic rupture in the existing domain of knowledge but just rationalised the course content as per contemporary knowledge need.As regards the decision of who decides what is unacceptable and what is desirable it is argued that every new generation has the right to make additions/deletions to the existing knowledge base,” it said.
The signatories included Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) VC Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, Suresh Kumar, English and Foreign Languages University VC Sanjay Srivastava, Mahatma Gandhi Central University,Motihari, VC Shambhu Nath Singh Tezpur Central University VC Shrinivasa Varakhedi, Central Sanskrit University VC, Sushma Yadav, Central University of Haryana pro-VC Prakash Mani Tripathi, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University VC NAME, and Central University of Jharkhand VC B Das, among others
{{/usCountry}}The signatories included Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) VC Santishree Dhulipudi Pandit, Suresh Kumar, English and Foreign Languages University VC Sanjay Srivastava, Mahatma Gandhi Central University,Motihari, VC Shambhu Nath Singh Tezpur Central University VC Shrinivasa Varakhedi, Central Sanskrit University VC, Sushma Yadav, Central University of Haryana pro-VC Prakash Mani Tripathi, Indira Gandhi National Tribal University VC NAME, and Central University of Jharkhand VC B Das, among others
{{/usCountry}}The statement came amid a controversy over the removal of several topics from the syllabus, including passages on the theory of evolution, references to the Cold War, the Mughal courts, and industrial revolution.
NCERT on June 9 issued a statement saying the council had the right to make changes based on copyright ownership and asserted that the “withdrawal of association by any one member is out of the question”