Kerala’s Education Minister, V Sivankutty, has declared that the state will not accept the changes made by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to the textbooks of classes 6 to 12. Speaking on Friday, the Minister stated that Kerala will oppose such changes using democratic mechanisms available within the federal system. He also said that one such mechanism would be the inclusion of new chapters suitable for Kerala in these NCERT textbooks. The government is also considering publishing the textbooks through the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT Kerala).
The Kerala government had opposed the revision when it was first introduced in 2022. The minister said that ‘humanities would be taught without any of the changes made by the NCERT’ and that the state would not approve of the Centre’s policy to prioritise parochial vested interests over academic concerns. He added, ‘We will go ahead with a clear focus on ideals Kerala has always held dear like universal brotherhood, secularism and Constitutional principles’.
The NCERT had removed certain chapters on the Mughal Empire from class 12 history textbooks as part of what has been called ‘syllabus rationalisation’. The removed chapters include those related to ‘Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (C. 16th and 17th centuries)’ from the book ‘Themes of Indian History-Part II’. In addition, certain chapters from class 12 civics textbooks, class 11 humanities texts, and class 10 politics textbooks have been excised. References to the Hindu right’s dislike for Mahatma Gandhi and the ban on RSS after Gandhi’s assassination have also been edited out from class 12 history texts.
The Minister argued that the NCERT’s reasons for removing certain chapters are ‘untenable even from an academic point of view’ and that ‘the vested interest behind the move is as clear as daylight’. He cited the removal of portions related to Mughal kings in ‘Themes of Indian History-Part II’ as a telling example.
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