New Delhi, Aug. 9: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has withdrawn a directive issued by its regional office asking its affiliated schools to follow only textbooks published by NCERT, bringing relief to private publishers.

The CBSE's Chennai region had issued a circular on April 6 on mandatory use of books published by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT).

The private schools prescribe books published by private publishers like Oxford University Press, Orient BlackSwan, Macmillan, Navneet and Ratna Sagar.

The CBSE circular was challenged by some of the schools in Madras High Court which stayed the circular on July 26. The board issued another circular on July 29 to cancel its earlier circular.

School education secretary Anil Swarup today said: "The government schools are already using NCERT textbooks. These books are not mandatory for private schools."