Defiant Kerala refuses to accept NCERT textbook changes for second consecutive year

General education minister V Sivankutty said on Friday that Kerala would not accept the changes made by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) to the textbooks of classes 6 to 12. "Kerala will oppose such moves using democratic mechanisms available within the federal system," Sivankutty said.

One of them would be the inclusion of new chapters suitable for Kerala in these NCERT textbooks used in Kerala schools. "We are also seriously considering the possibility of publishing the textbooks through the State Council of Education Research and Training (SCERT Kerala)," he said.

The Kerala government had opposed the revision right in 2022 when it was first introduced. "We had not approved of the attempts by the NCERT to distort history since last year. We had taken the stand that humanities would be taught without any of the changes made by the NCERT," the minister said.

"Under no circumstances will Kerala approve of the Centre's policy to prioritise parochial vested interests over academic concerns. We will go ahead with a clear focus on ideals Kerala has always held dear like universal brotherhood, secularism and Constitutional principles," Sivankutty added.

As part of what has been called "syllabus rationalisation", the NCERT had removed certain chapters on the Mughal Empire from class 12 history textbooks. The erased chapters are related to ‘Kings and Chronicles; the Mughal Courts (C. 16th and 17th centuries)’ from the book ‘Themes of Indian History-Part II’.

The Class 12 civics book no longer has these chapters: 'Politics in India since Independence', 'Rise of popular movements', and ‘Era of one-party dominance’ have been removed.

From Class 11 humanities texts, certain chapters like Central Islamic Lands, Confrontation of Cultures, and The Industrial Revolution have been excised.

From Class 10 politics textbooks, the following chapters have been taken out: ‘Democracy and diversity’, ‘Popular struggles and movement’, and ‘Challenges to democracy’.

References to the Hindu right's dislike for Mahatma Gandhi and the ban on RSS after Gandhi's assassination have also been edited out from Class 12 history texts.

The minister said the NCERT had given out five major reasons for removing certain chapters. One, overlap; certain chapters are found in more than one subject of the same class. Two, repetition; what was taught in a lower class finds a place in the syllabus of the higher class. Three, student burden; the NCERT feels that students are being subjected to unnecessary pressure. Four is accessibility; there is no need to include lessons students could learn without the help of teachers. Five, redundancy; certain lessons have lost their relevance in the current context.

"Most of these arguments are untenable even from an academic point of view. The vested interest behind the move is as clear as daylight," Sivankutty said. He said the removal of portions related to Mughal kings in ‘Themes of Indian History-Part II’ was a telling example.