‘Efforts in the name of new curriculum framework against democratic values’: Kerala Education Minister

NEW DELHI: Kerala general education minister V Sivankutty has termed the recent suggestion of changing India to ‘Bharat’ in school textbooks as a development “against the democratic values” of the country.

A panel appointed for revising the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for social science recommended that ‘Bharat’ be used instead of India in textbooks from Class 5 to Class 12.

The Kerala education minister said that the state completely rejects these suggestions. He also said that the Kerala State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) will evaluate the NCERT books that the state uses to gauge if they promote a scientific temper. Kerala only uses NCERT textbooks in Classes 11 and 12.

“Kerala rejects the recent recommendations regarding social science curriculum. India, that is Bharat, is what the Constitution says. Kerala only uses 44 ncert textbooks for Class 11 and 12. If the books are unscientific and not inline with the constitutional values then a state curriculum committee will extensively evaluate this ,” he said.

‘Sacrificing the academic interests’

Kerala education minister V Sivankutty also called this move an effort to saffronise textbooks.

“Efforts taken in the name of the new curriculum framework are against the democratic values. There is a concerted effort to saffronise the entire textbooks. At the national level important lessons were removed from textbooks in the name of Covid-19 including topics pertaining to Gujarat riots, Gandhi’s assassination and Darwin’s theory of evolution. These authoritative decisions are sacrificing the academic interests of the country,” Sivankutty said.

The NCERT had dropped significant portions in science and social science curricula that garnered national attention. As a response against this, Kerala decided to issue additional textbooks that include the portions deleted by NCERT.

“There are 33 crore children in India and only 25 crore children go to school. Eight crore children are outside the school curriculum due to various reasons. This is a statistic that still exists after 75 years of Independence. It is in this context that we are discussing this particular issue,” the minister said

The Kerala education minister also said that the new textbooks inline with Kerala’s State Curriculum Framework 2023 will be available for Classes 1,3,5,7,and 9 from June 2024. Textbooks for Classes 2,4,6,8,and 10 will be available from June 2025.