‘Let’s put R and T back into NCERT’

It is a view that has been endorsed by the three-member history panel set up by the HRD Ministry recently. Professor S. Settar, a key member of that panel, had suggested that the NCERT’s role as a publisher and printer be reduced, allowing it to focus on preparing model textbooks.

Research is the top priority now for Kumar, who was a professor at the Delhi University’s Central Institute of Education and member of the UNESCO advisory group on the 2005 report on Global Monitoring and Quality in Education. ‘‘In the next few years, we will recover our place and design textbooks that can be used over a broader spectrum,’’ he says.

To begin with, the Council will launch an interactive website, which will facilitate a debate on the National Curriculum Framework in 2006.

‘‘Many committees, with eminent scholars and senior faculty members, will be set up and announced shortly,’’ says Kumar. The new textbooks will first be formulated for Classes 1 to 8 and 11.