On Friday, the Congress criticized the Union government, accusing the Education Ministry of “sabotaging” children’s education due to delays in printing Class 6 textbooks.
“Despite the school year starting, the NCERT – or as I call it, the National (read Nagpur) Council of Educational Research and Training – has failed to publish new Science, Mathematics, and Social Sciences textbooks for Class 6 students,” Congress general secretary Jairam Ramesh posted on ‘X’.
Ramesh alleged that the National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) has not yet finalized the syllabus and textbooks, and it will take another 10 to 15 days to print them. He also claimed that officials anticipate a two-month delay before the books are available to students.
According to PTI, the new textbooks, which were supposed to be introduced in April, are still not on the market. Although Class 3 textbooks are available, only English and Hindi textbooks have been released for Class 6, and this in the middle of the academic session.
In response to the NEET controversy, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan stated, “Congress only wants chaos and confusion.”
The Ministry of Education (MoE) formed the NSTC last July to create new textbooks for Classes 3 to 12 with a February deadline. However, the NSTC decided to change textbooks only for Classes 3 and 6.
“For the 2024-25 academic year, new and engaging textbooks will be introduced for Classes 3 and 6. The textbook development work is in the final phase, and nine textbooks for Grades 3 and 6 are already available. The remaining eight will be available very soon,” a senior Ministry of Education official said, according to PTI.
“Either the rot runs deep, or the incompetence scales new heights every day!” Ramesh remarked, noting that NCERT has yet to receive the drafts of the new Social Science, Mathematics, and Science books for Class 6 from the NSTC.
On Thursday, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan reviewed the progress of school textbooks under the New Curriculum Framework (NCF), reported PTI.
