NCERT Under Fire for Creating Modules on Government Accomplishments

After announcing that it would create study modules for schools on recent accomplishments, such as Covid management and women's empowerment, the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) has come under fire for acting like a government advertising agency.

NCERT modules on Chandrayaan-3 were released on Tuesday by the education minister, Dharmendra Pradhan, and they looked to give the prime minister, Narendra Modi, a lot of credit for the mission's success. In addition to focusing on the successes of the government, such as the G20 meeting and India's advancement to the fifth-largest economy, Pradhan said the NCERT would also produce modules on a number of other topics.

Modules will be prepared by the NCERT. The education department is in charge of imparting knowledge to the kids, according to Pradhan.

According to a government official, the education ministry instructed the NCERT, which creates textbooks, to produce additional reading materials for students on 15 different themes. To meet the needs of kids in foundational, primary, middle, and high school, multiple modules on each theme will be released.

According to a former member of the NCERT faculty, the academic organization has never written about the accomplishments of the current administration.

"It's strange. I can't think of a time when a government requested that the NCERT create educational materials about its accomplishments for students. These modules will only be useful as supplemental reading material, he continued.

He claimed that both the unexpected and unanticipated lockdown that occurred during Covid and the subsequent shortage of hospital beds, oxygen, and medications caused a great deal of suffering for people.

The wording of the Chandrayaan modules, according to Prof. Anita Rampal, a former dean of faculty (education) at Delhi University and former chairwoman of the NCERT's Primary Textbook Development Committee, appeared to be promotional material for the government.

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

"The NCERT is a self-sufficient organization. The government may offer advice, but the NCERT exerts its independence on academic issues as an expert organization. Occasionally, while the UPA government was in office, the NCERT approved materials that were critical of the ruling party. Since the NCERT is the top body, it should exercise this level of professional autonomy, she said.

Rampal claimed that the Chandrayaan modules had attempted to falsify the genuine scientific method by attributing scientific accomplishment to a political figure.

"Continued experimentation and design, where failure is a component of creativity, are part of Isro's work culture. The author said that the text "suggests otherwise and tends to disrespect the institutional legacy and nature of its scientific pursuit, amounting to trivializing the process of scientific exploration."

Rampal claimed that two G20 modules created by the education ministry and published on the NCERT website utilize phrases like "the fountainhead of democracy" to refer to India.

Professional textbook authors and educators steer clear of overtly nationalistic and chauvinistic language. In reality, academic rigor and discipline in such topics had been strongly advised in our prior Education Commission findings, she noted.

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