NCERT to Develop New Textbooks for Academic Year 2024-25

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will develop a new set of textbooks that will be implemented starting with the 2024–25 academic session in compliance with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. In the years 2021–2022, NCERT textbooks underwent a process of rationalisation.

This decision was made to cut back on the amount of material covered in class because of the significance of students’ health both during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, a statement reads. The main objective is to develop a curriculum that is much easier to manage and supportive of students’ mental health.

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“The rationalisation of NCERT textbooks done in 2021-22 was a need-based exercise aimed at reducing the content load, keeping in view the students mental health during the COVID pandemic and its aftermath,” NCERT said in a tweet.

The rationalised textbooks are simply a part of this academic year 2023–2024’s transitional phase, since NCERT is working to complete the National Curricular Framework for School Education (NCF-SE), which is based on NEP 2020.

A new set of textbooks will then be created and utilised beginning with the next academic year. Hence, it should be evident that these books are not for a very long time, the NCERT claims.

Days ago, the NCERT eliminated a chapter on the periodic table of elements from the Class 10 science textbook, among other topics, as part of a “syllabus rationalisation” effort. While some believed the change would plunge the nation into the “dark ages”, others provided links to the brand-new book and insisted that the subject had not been eliminated but just transferred to the Class 11 syllabus.

According to council officials, the topic was dropped when the syllabus was 30 per cent more rationalised in order to “reduce content load on students” in preparation for the COVID-19 pandemic in 2022. Meanwhile, new textbooks released earlier this year incorporated the modifications.

The chapter “Periodic Classification of Elements” from the science textbook for Class 10 was removed, as per the list of rationalised content that the council provided in June of last year. The history of the creation of the periodic table of elements is still covered in the chemistry textbook’s chapter titled – “Classification of Elements and Periodicity in Properties” for Class 11 students.