Opinion Teach the crisis: Why NCERT must rework climate and pollution education in its textbooks now

Twelve of the 20 dirtiest cities worldwide are in India. Northern plains expose 544 million people to deadly PM2.5 particles. In 2024, India recorded its hottest year. Floods displaced 5.4 million people. Nearly 33 per cent of the land suffers from erosion and overuse. Rivers choke on sewage and toxins, and 70 per cent of surface water is unfit, causing 400,000 deaths yearly from contaminated supplies. E-waste rose 147 per cent in seven years, plastic waste reached 4.14 million tonnes, and forests shrank at decade-high rates.

Heat claimed hundreds of lives in 2024, with 40,000 cases of heatstroke. Groundwater tables plunge as districts across Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh drill ever deeper. States like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar suffer the most in terms of environmental and health issues, affecting nearly half of their populations. These crises cost billions in health and lost wages, hitting people with low incomes hardest.

What the syllabus no longer teaches

Since 2020, the NCERT rationalisation has removed key sections in school books. Class VII dropped the chapter “Weather, Climate and Adaptations” entirely. Class VIII removed the chapter titled “Pollution of Air and Water”. Class X Social Science’s “Forest and Wildlife Resources” lost biodiversity sections. The “Environmental Issues” chapter in Class XII Biology was heavily trimmed. Class XI Geography deleted contents related to the greenhouse effect.

Lower classes gained activity-based EVS on local nature but lacked depth in understanding Delhi air pollution or Ganga toxins, with no significant returns in higher grades. Children study history, rulers or maths, not crises poisoning playgrounds.

This loss runs deep in classrooms. Environmental education teaches the observation of patterns, such as why air quality worsens in winter, why some neighbourhoods flood and others stay dry and why certain families can afford purifiers and others cannot. It builds habits of probing systems. Without it, students turn to rumour, superstition or apathy. The crisis fades to background hum, not something to dissect, solve or fight against.

Inequality makes the discrepancy worse. Fee-paying private-school pupils access environmental science via international boards, digital tools or workshops. But, for most in government and low-cost private schools, NCERT textbooks are the primary source of structured knowledge. Removing a chapter does more than shrinking pages. Environmental expertise becomes a purchasable privilege, not a state promise.

Consequences stretch past school walls. Air pollution cuts life expectancies in the northern plains. Water tables plunge in farming belts. Extreme heat endangers outdoor labour. These highlight current governance shortfalls that cry out for sharp criticism from the electorate. Citizens untrained in pollution science or climate hazards cannot demand accountability. They miss real input on industrial rules, city layouts or disaster readiness. A democracy that shortchanges its youth on environmental facts cripples its own drive for a joint response.

Action cannot wait for next winter’s stranglehold. NCERT must revise the chapters on pollution, climate, and waste, enriching them with Indian case studies rather than vague anecdotes. Lessons can highlight caste, class, and urban divides, showing crises battering backward areas hardest.

Indian children deserve books that mirror their reality. Policymakers, parents and educators must demand that NCERT rectifies these gaps now. Make its textbooks survival tools, not silencers. Our air will not clean itself. Futures will not save themselves. Teach the truth before time runs out.

The writer teaches at SPSEC, Kanpur