NEW DELHI: The chairman of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Mamidala Jagadesh Kumar came out in support of the latest textbooks rationalisation by the NCERT.
Taking to Twitter, he wrote NCERT has been revising textbooks from time to time in the past too and protests by some of the "academicians" were unwarranted.
According to him, there was no merit in the "hue and cry of these academicians". The objective behind protests seems to be other than academic reasons, he added.
"In the recent past, the attacks by some "academicians" on NCERT for revising the textbooks are unwarranted.
The current textbook modifications are not the only ones carried out. NCERT has been revising textbooks from time to time in the past too," UGC Chairman tweeted.
National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) recently dropped the full chapter on Periodic Classification of Elements, a full chapter on Democracy and Diversity, a full chapter on Challenges to Democracy, and a full page on Political Parties from the newly released textbooks of Class 10 students.
NCERT, according to him, is fully justified in carrying out the rationalization of its textbook contents. NCERT stated that the revision of textbooks was based on suggestions and feedback from various stakeholders.
"NCERT has also confirmed that it is developing a new set of textbooks based on the recently launched National Curriculum Framework for School Education and that current textbooks in which the contents have been rationalized to reduce the academic load are only a temporary phase," he tweeted.
Amid the row over the removal of certain portions of syllabi by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), as part of its exercise to reduce the content load among students, dozens of academicians have registered their protest.