In a country like India, in which deeply conservative norms inform the aspirations of young girls… the school can be an exciting and liberating arena in which to offer an alternative vision of womanhood… But in the new NCERT Social Sciences textbooks for Class 7, two extraordinary women have been calamitously excised from the records — Razia Sultan and Noor Jahan.”

Ira Mukhoty, historian, in an essay ‘Razia Sultan and Noor Jahan: What girls lose when queens are erased’ (Times of India, August 31)

“Oxford University, Cambridge University and the Imperial College, London are in close geographical proximity to each other. Yet each one of them teaches different things in mathematics at the undergraduate level… This makes one wonder why the UGC has chosen to micromanage the design of the mathematics undergraduate curriculum?”

Dinesh Singh, former vice chancellor of Delhi University, questioning UGC’s decision to prescribe a common maths curriculum (The Sunday Indian Express, September 7)

“These learning outcomes reflect more than just academic failure — they expose a calculated dismantling of critical thinking, curiosity, and analytical reasoning. They reveal a broader attempt by the BJP government to hollow out the democratic and scientific consciousness of future generations, replacing it with rote memorisation and ideological conformity.”

Renuka Chowdhury, Congress MP, in an essay titled ‘Sabotaging the future: BJP’s assault on public education’ (Deccan Herald, September 8)

“Literacy goes beyond reading and writing. It is a means to dignity, empowerment and self-reliance. India’s literacy rate has risen from 74 percent in 2011 to 80.9 percent in 2023–24. But true progress will be achieved only when literacy becomes a lived reality for every citizen.”

Dharmendra Pradhan, Union education minister, speaking on International Literacy Day 2025 (September 9)