Ancient Indian knowledge systems, traditions find more space in Classes VI to X textbooks

The new National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks, which will be available in bookstores from March, will give more space to ancient Indian knowledge, traditions and practices, according to a report by The Indian Express.

A content analysis of 25 textbooks conducted by the newspaper shows that books for students of Classes VI to X carry new information on ancient Indian philosophy, Ayurveda, Yoga, teachings of Upanishads and Smritis, and scientific achievements of ancient India in the fields of astronomy and metallurgy.

The changes have been made as part of the textbook review —first such since 2007 — taken up in 2017 the NCERT.

In August 2017, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that NCERT will work on giving students a better understanding of India and its “glorious past”. He was speaking while inaugurating a lecture series on Bharat Bodh (Idea of India) at Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU).

"Bharat's (India's) education system became such that we kept on forgetting Bharat's culture and insisted on remembering the rest of the world's. It is necessary to know and remember the world but this does not imply that we can forget Bharat. It is necessary to understand the Bharat and its glorious past," Javadekar had said.

NCERT is an autonomous organisation that advises the Ministry of Human Resource Development (HRD) on school education and syllabus.

The newspaper compared old and new versions of 25 textbooks across five subjects (History, Geography, Political Science, Science and English), which revealed that new and additional content has been added about India’s ancient past not only in history textbooks, but also in science and geography.