Yadav, Palshikar dissociate from ‘mutilated’ NCERT books

NEW DELHI: Dissociating themselves from the NCERT political science textbooks, Suhas Palshikar and Yogendra Yadav, who were chief advisers for the books on the subject for Class IX to XII, said the rationalisation exercise had “mutilated” the books “beyond recognition” and that they were “never consulted or even informed of the changes.

Asking the National Council for Educational Research and Training to drop their names as chief advisers from all political science textbooks, both Palshikar and Yadav on Friday said that “. . . we feel embarrassed that our names should be mentioned as chief advisers to these mutilated and academically dysfunctional textbooks. . . ”

The rationalisation of syllabus was initiated by NCERT as a response to the Covid-19 disruption. While most of the changes made as part of the rationalisation exercise were notified, some of the controversial deletions were not mentioned. This led to allegations about a bid to delete these portions surreptitiously. The Cou ncil countered the omissions as a possible oversight but refused to undo the deletions, saying they were based on the recommendations of experts. It also said the textbooks were anyway headed for revision in 2024 when the National Curriculum Framework kicks in. However, NCERT later said that “minor changes need not be notified”.

In their letter to NCERT Director D inesh Saklani, Palshikar and Yadav said: “While the modifications have been justified in the name of rationalisation, we fail to see any pedagogic rationale at work here. We find that the text has been mutilated beyond recognition.

There are innumerable and irrational cuts and large deletions without any attempts to fill the gaps created . We were n ever consulted or even informed of these changes. If NCERT did consult other experts for deciding on these cuts and deletions, we explicitly state that we fully disagree with them in this regard. ” “Text books cannot and should not be shaped in this blatantly partisan manner and should not quell the spirit of critique and questioning among students of social sciences. These
books do not serve the purpose of training students of political science,” the letter said.
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