Mita Mukherjee
The West Bengal State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) is developing the state curriculum framework but it is yet to decide on whether the portions which the NCERT has deleted from school textbooks would be dropped or not from the syllabus taught to students in Bengal.
“Like many other states, Bengal too is in the process of developing the state curriculum framework. It is being framed keeping in mind the four domains of curriculum,” said Chhanda Ray, director of SCERT West Bengal addressing a one day state level conference on the backdrop of G-20 organised by Sahodaya at Abhinav Bharti School under the guidance of Central Board of Education (CBSE), Bhubaneswar on Thursday.
Later on the sidelines of the programme the SCERT director said no decision has yet been taken on whether the council would follow the NCERT’s policy in revising the textbooks taught in schools in Bengal.
“ The development of the new curriculum is a long process and a lot of discussions will take place before the final curriculum is framed,” Ray told EducationWorld on the sidelines of the programme.
Asked whether the state council would follow the NCERT’s decision and remove the chapters that have been deleted from the NCERT textbooks, Ray said: “ No decision has been taken in this regard. The preparation of textbooks under the revised curriculum will be done when the process of developing the curriculum is complete. Let us first complete this and then we will decide about the content of the textbooks. As of now the textbooks taught here contain all the topics that have been deleted from the NCERT textbooks.”
The NCERT, engaged in advising central and state governments on academic matters of school education, had carried out a “syllabus rationalization” exercise to reduce the burden on students after the Covid-19 pandemic.
NCERT prescribed textbooks have been a source of controversy for its alleged attempts to promote the ideologies of the ruling party at the centre.
For example, the decision of the NCERT to remove certain sections on Mughal empire from Class XII text books, dropping of Charles Darwin’s theory of Evolution from Classes IX and X syllabus and scrapping of periodic table from Class X text books had dismayed academics, teachers and scientists across the country.
Addressing the programme, Ray said that in the latest National Achievement Survey, Bengal had fared better than the national average for Classes III and V. But for Classes VIII and X, the performance of students has been found to be lower than the national average.
She said the state government was doing the needful to fill the gap. She urged the schools to identify the areas of learning gaps and provide extra support to the students according to their needs.
Srinivasan, regional officer of CBSE Bhubaneswar and Chinmoyee Patnaik deputy director of West Bengal school education department were also present at the function.
The conference was organized as part of the mandate of the Union ministry of education to hold state level seminar’s on the theme ‘Foundational Literacy and Numeracy to commemorate India’s assuming Presidency G-20.
EdTech company Nalanda Learning which is working on addressing the specific needs and requirements of early childhood care and education also participated in the programme.
“ With over 250 plus schools benefiting from its NEP2020 compliant curriculum and digital content, Nalanda Learning has been at the forefront of delivering high quality education to over 15,000 plus students across India for the past two years,” Tamal Mukherjee, founder director of Nalanda Learning said after the programme.
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