Explained: What NCERT Book Revision Panel Is Tasked To Do

NCERT, the country's apex advisory body on school education, has initiated the final phase of developing new textbooks by forming a 19-member committee, with an aim to align “school syllabus, textbooks, teaching and learning materials.”

The official note, circulated by the ministry read, “As a follow-up of the National Education Policy, 2020, development of the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE 2023) was initiated with the constitution of the National Steering Committee. In this context, NSTC, which is empowered to develop the school syllabus, textbooks, and teaching-learning materials for Classes 3-12 (and to appropriately revise the existing textbooks of class 1 and 2 to ensure smooth transition from Class 2 to 3) is being notified.”

Panel Members

The 19-member National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) includes philanthropist Sudha Murthy, singer Shankar Mahadevan, fields medallist Manjul Bhargava, founding member of the RSS-affiliated Samskrita Bharati Chamu Krishna Shastri, chairman of the Economic Advisory Council to PM Sanjeev Sanyal, mathematician Sujatha Ramdorai, badminton player U Vimal Kumar, chairperson of Centre for Policy Studies MD Srinivas, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research former director-general Shekhar Mande, director U. Vimal Kumar, former Badminton player Prakash Padukone, professor at University of British Columbia Sujatha Ramdorai, visiting professor at IT Gandhinagar professor Michel Danino, retired IAS officer Surina Rajan, NSTC Programme Office Head Gajanan Londhe, SCERT Sikkim Dr Rabin Chhetri, NCERT Professors Pratyusha Kumar Mandal, Dinesh Kumar, and Kirti Kapoor.

National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) chancellor MC Pant will be heading the 19-member committee. A professor at Princeton University, Manjul Bhargav will be its co-chair. 

Framework

The NSTC is mandated to prepare textbooks, and other teaching learning materials, which will be published and used by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for reference, a senior official said. 

NSTC will be accompanied by Curricular Area Groups (CAGs) in the development of the teaching-learning material for all curricular areas. The groups, formed by the chairperson and the co-Chairperson of NSTC, with the assistance of NCERT, will have appropriate experts for the particular subject. 

The objective of the committee will be to align the curriculum with the NCF-SE, developed by the K Kasturirangan-led committee as a part of the NEP 2020.

The NCF-SE, now in the advanced stages, will act as the reference point and guiding road map for the syllabus and textbook developers for school-level education all over the country.