The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has reportedly dropped the Preamble to the Constitution from class 3 and class 6 textbooks. The Preamble was previously published in the first few pages of the books but it has now been removed from all class 3 books, reported The Tribune. In the case of class 6, it has been removed from the social science textbook but has been published in the science book ‘Curiosity’, and the Hindi book ‘Malhar’. The social science textbook now contains fundamental rights and fundamental duties.
NCERT has published only one book on environmental studies this year for class 6. Earlier, it used to publish three books. The Preamble has not been published in the new class 6 English textbook, ‘Poorvi’ or the Sanskrit textbook, ‘Deepakam’. Both these books now contain the national anthem and the national song, the report added.
However, Professor Ranjana Arora, Head of the Department of Curriculum Studies and Development at NCERT said that the new textbooks not only give importance to the Preamble but also the various aspects of the Indian Constitution such as fundamental duties, fundamental rights, and the national anthem.
“The allegations regarding the removal of the Preamble from the NCERT textbooks do not have a sound basis. For the first time NCERT is giving great importance to various facets of the Indian Constitution- Preamble, Fundamental Duties, Fundamental Rights and the National Anthem. All these are being placed in various textbooks of various stages. The understanding that only the Preamble reflects the Constitution and Constitutional Values is flawed and narrow. Why should children not acquire Constitutional Values from Fundamental Duties, Fundamental Rights and National Anthem along with Preamble? We give equal importance to all of these for the holistic development of children following the vision of NEP – 2020,” said Arora.
Apart from this, the new revised NCERT Class 12 Political Science textbook does not mention the Babri Masjid by name but refers to it as a “three-domed structure”. The Ayodhya section has been trimmed from four to two pages deleting the details from the earlier version.
Developed in line with the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023 and the new National Education Policy 2020, NCERT has revised most chapters and rooted them in an Indian context. The old NCERT English language textbook, Honeysuckle, consisted of eight poems which included seven by non-Indian authors. It also had eight prose pieces of which five were by non-Indian authors. Now, more stories by Indian authors have been added. The word ‘Bharat’ has been used for the first time in an NCERT textbook. The word has been used 19 times in the chapter titled “Culture and Tradition,” while India has been mentioned seven times.
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