NCERT revisions: Post PM-SHRI, will Kerala revolt once again by teaching chapters rubbished by Centre

General Education Minister V Sivankutty said on Wednesday that the state government would respond as strongly as it had in earlier years if the NCERT (National Council for Educational Research and Training) revised school textbooks this academic year, too, as part of what he called its "agenda to distort history". 

In 2023, the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) had published additional text books that included all the chapters and portions that were left out by the NCERT texts and retained them as part of Kerala's curriculum. "Whenever the NCERT had extensively excised chapters, Kerala had set an example by boldly printing additional text books," the minister said in a Facebook post on Wednesday.

The minister's clarification has come close on the heels of reports that revised NCERT text books will be allowed to be taught in Kerala's schools after Kerala had become a signatory to the PM-SHRI project in 2025. 

Though the LDF government claims that the PM-SHRI agreement had been put on hold, the status of the project in Kerala is still uncertain. The Centre has still not responded to Kerala's decision to opt out of the scheme.

However, the general education minister had strong words against the Centre's curriculum revision. "The Centre's meddling in the education system in the name of education is aimed at distorting history and destroying scientific temper," Sivankutty said. He said that Kerala did not hesitate to officially oppose such anti-academic measures at the NCERT meeting held in Delhi. 

"If the new NCERT textbooks are against Kerala's interests, Kerala would respond as strongly as we had in earlier years," Sivankutty said. The revised NCERT textbooks are expected to arrive by the end of February.

As many as 44 titles that are taught in Kerala government schools are NCERT texts, and this include science and social science texts like physics, chemistry biology, history, political science, economics, sociology and psychology. The SCERT, on the other hand, prints 39 titles.

In 2023, as part of what has been called "syllabus rationalisation", the NCERT had removed certain chapters on the Mughal Empire from class 12 history textbooks. 

The Class 12 civics book had taken out the following chapters: 'Politics in India since Independence', 'Rise of popular movements', and 'Era of one-party dominance. 

From Class 11 humanities texts, certain chapters like 'Central Islamic Lands', 'Confrontation of Cultures', and 'The Industrial Revolution' were excised. From Class 10 politics textbooks, chapters like 'Democracy and diversity', 'Popular struggles and movement', and 'Challenges to democracy' were removed. 

References to the Hindu right's dislike for Mahatma Gandhi and the ban on RSS after Gandhi's assassination were also edited out from Class 12 history texts. All these were re-introduced by the LDF government through additional textbooks printed by the SCERT.