New Delhi, June 24: The present set of NCERT textbooks that sought to “rewrite” history under the leadership of Murli Manohar Joshi is on its way out of classrooms.
The process of recrafting history initiated by Joshi as human resource development minister has come a full circle with the new guard in the HRD ministry unveiling a new chapter that in the long run could strip the National Council of Educational Research and Training of its monopoly over deciding school curriculum and textbooks.
An expert panel of historians probing the controversial textbooks has recommended the withdrawal of all history texts studied by students between classes VI and XII from this academic session itself.
“The books present an unbalanced view of history and are not fit for studying,” said historian Barun De of the three-member panel. The other two are S. Sattar and M.S. Grewal.
These books would not be replaced by any one textbook for each class. The panel, instead, recommended a set of alternative reading material that could be gathered from different textbooks.
At present, students have a textbook for each period in history — ancient, medieval and modern. The panel wants to widen the choice of teachers and students.
This would be in the form of a reading list recommending various books. “It will be more like the system we have in colleges, where not just one but several books are recommended for studying particular periods or subjects in history,” Sattar said.
The panel today submitted its report to the HRD ministry. “We hope to meet again in the capital on July 5 to give our list of reading material to the ministry,” Sattar said.
The panel, he said, is studying the alternative reading material available in the market. “There are good books in the market, not just by a few individuals but many others and private organisations,” Sattar said. He, however, chose not to identify the books.
Sattar was of the opinion that the old NCERT textbooks authored by Left-liberal historians could be studied only as part of a wider reading material.
“The students can refer to certain chapters in these books. But these will not be the only textbooks,” he said.
The panel wants to break the NCERT’s monopoly by setting in motion a decentralised system that would involve more teachers and not just a handful of the council’s faculty members. “Personal authorship of (a) few academics may be scrapped so that collective wisdom can take its place,” Sattar said.
The panel recommended a model question bank — expected to be set up by August first week — so that students would know what to expect from a system where they would study not one but several books for a particular period.
