CBSE frets over delay in syllabus

new delhi: the central board of secondary education has become an unwitting victim of the delayed release of the revamped syllabus by the national council for educational research and training. since the cbse recommends books by private publishers in addition to those of the ncert in classes xi and xii, its hands are tied till the syllabus is released to the publishers.more than three weeks after the ncert announced the release of ''highlights'', it is still fine tuning the new syllabus. cbse's director (academics) g balasubramanian said, ''we have written to the ncert asking them to make the syllabus available to private publishers as soon as possible.'' that was over a month ago. ncert director j s rajput had earlier told the times of india, ''we are preparing a document and that will take its own time.'' as opposed to classes ix and x, for which ncert books are prescribed, in classes xi and xii ncert books are recommended along with those by private publishers. schools are not bound to choose only ncert books. ''how will the cbse prescribe books other than those of the ncert if the new syllabus is not known to private publishers?'' an official asked. ''after the new syllabus is given to private publishers they have to get the books written, the manuscripts of which are submitted to the cbse,'' balasubramanian said. a committee then examines the manuscripts. ''which is why private publishers need two-three months' time after notification of the syllabus for getting the books written and then printed,'' he said. moreover, the books have to be made available in three languages, english, hindi and urdu. that, too, is time-consuming private publishers said the delay had brought work to a standstill. ''we can neither think nor plan,'' said ashok kumar of mohit publishers. ''authors will not have time to write well-researched books. ultimately, the students will suffer.''