NCERT Accused of Becoming Government Advertising Agency After Releasing Modules on Recent Accomplishments

Following the announcement that the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) would release study modules for schools on recent accomplishments, such as Covid management and women's empowerment, the organization has faced accusations that it operates like a government advertising agency.

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan unveiled NCERT Chandrayaan-3 modules on Tuesday, seemingly attributing a great deal of the mission's accomplishments to Prime Minister Narendra Modi. According to Pradhan, the NCERT would release modules on a number of different topics, with an emphasis on the accomplishments of the administration, like India's rise to the fifth-largest economy and the G20 meeting.

Modules will be prepared by NCERT. The education department bears the responsibility of disseminating knowledge to the youth, according to Pradhan.

According to a government official, the NCERT, which creates textbooks, has been requested by the education ministry to provide additional reading materials for students on 15 different themes. To meet the demands of students in foundation, primary, middle, and upper secondary education, several modules will be released on each theme.

The academic organization had never written anything about the accomplishments of the current government, according to a former member of the NCERT faculty.

It is not typical. I cannot remember ever having heard from any government asking the NCERT to create educational materials about its accomplishments for students. The usage of these modules will be restricted as long as they are only meant to be supplemental reading material, he stated.

He claimed that the unexpected and abrupt lockdown during COVID had caused a great deal of suffering for people, as had the subsequent shortage of oxygen, medications, and hospital beds.

The wording of the Chandrayaan modules seems to be government propaganda, according to Prof. Anita Rampal, a former chair of the Textbook Development Committee of the NCERT for elementary courses and dean of faculty at Delhi University.

According to Rampal, the NCERT has never served as the government's advertising agency.

"The NCERT is a self-governing organization. Although the government may offer advice, the NCERT retains its independence in academic affairs as an expert body. On a few occasions during the UPA government's tenure, the NCERT published literature that was critical of the ruling party. As the highest authority, the NCERT is supposed to have this kind of professional autonomy, the speaker stated.

According to Rampal, the Chandrayaan modules attempted to distort the true nature of science by attributing scientific achievement to a political figurehead.

"Continued experimentation and design, where failure is a component of creativity, are integral to the work culture of Isro. She claimed that the text "suggests otherwise and tends to disrespect the institutional legacy and nature of its scientific pursuit," amounting to a trivialization of the scientific method.

According to Rampal, phrases like "the fountainhead of democracy" are used to describe India in two G20 modules that were created by the education ministry and posted on the NCERT website.

Jingoistic and unduly chauvinistic language are avoided by experienced textbook authors and educators. Indeed, academic rigor and moderation in such topics had been highly advised in our previous Education Commission findings," the speaker stated.