The National Council of Educational Research and Training has invited suggestions from teachers on improving the quality of its textbooks in all subjects for Classes I to XII.

The council has begun reviewing its textbooks to update them with missing facts and information, with the human resource development ministry expressing interest in making them compulsory for all the schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education from next year.

Curriculum unchanged
The curriculum, however, will remain unchanged, an official said.

If there are factual errors in the textbooks, teachers from any corner of the country can bring them to the notice of the council.

“They can also make suggestions on the content, concept or presentation of our text books,” the official said.
The council will accept feedback and suggestions from teachers till June 30.

The review of the NCERT textbooks has been initiated based on instructions from the HRD ministry. The ministry wants to make the NCERT textbooks compulsory for all classes in the CBSE schools as the cost of textbooks of private publishers is much higher than that of the NCERT.

Most of the CBSE schools currently use NCERT textbooks for Classes IX to XII as the questions for the board examinations are based on matter from these books.

Earlier this year, the CBSE tried to push its schools to use NCERT textbooks in an effort to address the issue.
The board issued a circular to all the schools affiliated to it, asking them to share with it the indent for the supply of NCERT books.

While more than 18,000 schools are affiliated to the CBSE, just 2,000 schools shared the indent with the CBSE for supply of NCERT textbooks.

Many of the private schools raised objections to the CBSE’s circular, accusing it of forcing them to use NCERT books.

HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar in April clarified that it was not mandatory.

He, however, indicated that the government wants CBSE schools to use NCERT textbooks instead of expensive texts by private publishers.