Slammed by Left, NCERT goes for secular rewrite

The critics had also alleged that the framework—prepared by a committee headed by Prof Yashpal—did not lay sufficient emphasis on science and gave too much importance to the role of personal experience in learning, leaving room for pro-Hindutva teaching. ‘‘We have listened to the criticism and made appropriate amendments,’’ said an NCERT official.

While the revised draft will come up before the Central Advisory Board on Education (CABE) for approval on September 7, here are some of the major revisions in the NCF:

local knowledge

ORIGINAL: ‘‘The child’s community and local environment form the primary context in which learning takes place….we emphasise the significance of contextualising education…and making a porous boundary between the school and its natural and social environment.’’

CRITICISM: Curriculum relying on local knowledge could result in textbooks endorsing pre-modern social values, particularly in issues of gender equality, caste system, etc.

REVISED: ‘‘All forms of local knowledge must be mediated through constitutional values and principles… In the case of content selection for social sciences and the language, it is important to keep ideals and values enshrined in the constitution. Inclusion of the local context in class room transaction would imply a serious attempt made by the teacher to make choices in a manner which is pedagogically imaginative and ethically sound.’’

Role of experience

ORIGINAL: ‘‘Knowledge can be conceived as experience organised, through patterns of thought… all children will have to re-create a significant part of this wealth for themselves….

CRITICISM: If a child learns only experience he might believe that the sun moves around the earth. Textbooks are necessary here. There is no emphasis on science.

REVISED: ‘‘In a progressive forward-looking society, science can play a truly liberating role, helping people out of the vicious circle of poverty, ignorance and superstition… it is also necessary to recognise that the social sciences lend themselves to scientific inquiry just as much as the natural sciences and physical sciences do.’’

Secularism

With critics alleging that the original draft was not explicit in its commitment to secularism, the revised draft has a liberal sprinkling of words such as as ‘‘pluralism’’, ‘‘respect for all religions and social groups’’, ‘‘human values’’, etc.

According to Rajendra Prasad of Sahmat, the Left campaign group which was spearheading the campaign against the NCERT, ‘‘If they have taken into account what we had to say, to whatever extent, it is welcome.’’