NCERT’s new Class 9 English book cuts syllabus: Why the shift is bigger than it looks

NCERT has revamped the Class 9 English course for the 2026–27 academic session, bringing in a new textbook, Kaveri, to replace the familiar Beehive and Moments volumes and reducing the total number of prescribed texts from 29 to 16. The changes, it seems, are far from cosmetic. Reports suggest that 28 of the 29 pieces from the earlier set have been dropped, with only O. Henry’s The Last Leaf retained. The new book, prepared in line with NEP 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023, also appears to tilt more clearly towards Indian writers, including Sudha Murty, Rabindranath Tagore, Subramania Bharati, Temsula Ao and Mitra Phukan.

A shorter syllabus, a different mix: What Kaveri changes in Class 9 English

As reported by PTI, the new Class 9 English textbook, Kaveri, opens with a story from Sudha Murty’s 2004 book How I Taught My Grandmother to Read and Other Stories. The new book, which also carries elements of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS), contains 16 texts in all. Of these, eight are by Indian writers, including Subramania Bharati, Sudha Murty, Temsula Ao, Mitra Phukan and Rabindranath Tagore. PTI further reports that six pieces in the book are by foreign writers, including David Roth, Charles Swain, Bryanna T. Perkins, Robert Langley, Maya Anthony and Irene Chua. The textbook also includes an anonymous poem, Gifts of Grace: Honouring Our Vocations, and an interview-based piece, The World of Limitless Possibilities, featuring Paralympian Deepa Malik.

NCERT Class 9 English textbook: A different teaching philosophy

The most important shift in Kaveri may not be the reduction in the number of texts, though that is the first thing everyone notices. The more important change lies in what NCERT now appears to want from an English textbook. The older Class 9 structure spread reading across two books, Beehive and Moments. Kaveri folds that into a single volume with 8 prose pieces and 8 poems, but the larger change lies in the curriculum logic behind it. NCERT’s new Grade 9 syllabus says the revised textbooks are being developed in alignment with NEP 2020 and NCF-SE 2023, with emphasis on experiential learning, cultural rootedness, values, Indian Knowledge Systems, inclusion and holistic assessment. That suggests the textbook is not being imagined merely as a set of lessons, but as something meant to guide how English is taught, discussed and absorbed, not merely what is read.

From reading lessons to building competencies

That shift cannot be ignored because school English is no longer being framed merely as a subject in which students read passages and answer questions. Reports suggest that Kaveri appears to carry far more pre-reading prompts, inference-based questions, speaking tasks and writing activities than the older books did. Whether every count in that comparison holds up in classroom use will need closer scrutiny, but the broader direction is clear enough: The student is being nudged from passive comprehension towards interpretation, discussion and expression. In curricular terms, this fits squarely with the competency-based turn NCERT has been signalling in its new class 9 framework.

Why the new classroom may feel more demanding

A shorter syllabus can easily create the impression of a lighter academic burden. But that may be only half the story. Kaveri appears to be moving away from the old-school comfort zone: Read the lesson, learn the meanings and answer what follows. Reports suggest the new book includes more pre-reading cues, more questions that ask students to infer rather than merely locate, and more opportunities to speak and write. On paper, at least, the child is not being asked only to understand the text, but to engage with it, think a little aloud and respond. Whether all of this will survive the realities of the classroom is a separate question. But the curricular intent sits neatly within the competency-based direction NCERT has been outlining in its revised class 9 framework.

Cultural rootedness is no longer in the margins

There is also a larger curricular message here. The revised class 9 framework explicitly says new NCERT textbooks are being developed with cultural rootedness and Indian Knowledge Systems built into them. That gives the literary choices in Kaveri a wider significance. The stronger presence of Indian authors, the decision to open with a Sudha Murty story, the inclusion of a piece on Deepa Malik, and the wider emphasis on vocation, identity, aspiration and recognisably Indian social worlds all point in one direction. English is no longer being positioned chiefly as a window to a literary world elsewhere. It is being asked to do something else as well — to carry Indian experience, arrange it, and make it legible within the classroom.

What may be lost

Something is gained when a syllabus is cut. But something is lost too. That part is usually spoken of in a lower voice. When NCERT brings the Class 9 English syllabus down from 29 texts to 16, the loss is not just numerical. It may be a loss of range. Of texture. Of the strange jolt that comes when a student meets a voice unlike anything at home, at school or in the neighbourhood. A good school English textbook does not merely mirror the familiar. It also unsettles it a little.

This is why the argument cannot be reduced to a lazy binary of Indian writers versus foreign ones. Indian authors absolutely deserve space in the NCERT Class 9 English textbook. More space, even. That is not the dispute. The sharper question is whether Kaveri is widening the classroom in a different direction or narrowing it in the name of coherence. That question will continue to follow NCERT, especially at a time when textbook changes are being read as part of a larger cultural and curricular reordering.

The real challenge will be teacher readiness

Textbooks can change in a season. Classroom habits do not. That is where the real test of Kaveri will lie. A book built around discussion, inference, argument, reflection and activity-based learning assumes a teacher who has both the time and the training to run such a classroom well. It also assumes assessment practices that reward expression and reasoning, not just recall. NCERT’s new class 9 syllabus clearly gestures towards that broader pedagogic shift. But unless teachers are prepared to move beyond the old “read the chapter, explain the meanings, answer the questions” routine, the promise of the new book may remain trapped in the preface.


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