The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will release a new syllabus and textbooks for Classes 3 to 6 while there will be no change in the curriculum and textbooks for other grades for the academic year 2024-25 commencing from April 1, according to CBSE officials. The NCERT has informed the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) that new syllabi and textbooks for classes 3 and 6 are currently under development and will soon be released, the CBSE said in a communication sent to affiliated schools.
"Consequently, schools are advised to follow these new syllabi and textbooks for classes 3 and 6 in place of textbooks published by NCERT till the year 2023," said Joseph Emmanuel, Director (Academics), CBSE. Additionally, a bridge course for class 6, and concise guidelines for class 3 are being developed by the NCERT to facilitate a seamless transition for students to new pedagogical practices and areas of study aligned with the new curriculum framework, 2023. These resources will be disseminated to all the schools online once they are received from NCERT.
"The Board will also organize capacity-building programs for school heads and Teachers to orient them with the new teaching-learning perspectives as envisioned in NEP-2020," he added in the letter. In a revision of the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) after 18 years, the Ministry of Education had last year notified the changes. The NCF had undergone four revisions in the past – in 1975, 1988, 2000, and 2005.
The council is in the process of preparing new school textbooks in line with the new national curriculum framework for school education (NCF-SE) 2023 as a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. "There will be no change in the Curriculum and textbooks for other classes for the academic year 2024-25 commencing from April 1, 2024," he said.
The NCF for the foundational stage (FS) was launched by the Ministry of Education in 2022 and according to the curriculum framework, the NCERT developed and collected the learning-teaching material (LTM). Toys, puzzles, puppetry, posters, flash cards, worksheets and attractive storybooks are part of the 'Jaadui Pitara' launched by the Ministry of Education for learning at the foundational stage.
In 2022, the NCERT had rationalised the syllabi of classes 6 to 12 to "reduce the content load" on students in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. Among the changes, reflected in new textbooks published last year, the council had removed chapters on Mughal courts, 2002 Gujarat riots, the cold war, references to Mughal emperors, and Emergency and the periodic table.
While the council maintained there was no selective omission of topics, the rationalisation exercise had created a political controversy with leaders from opposition parties alleging the ruling dispensation was "erasing history".
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