Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan released additional SCERT (the State Council for Educational Research and Training) textbooks on Wednesday. These new textbooks reintegrate the topics recently removed from NCERT textbooks.
Regarding classes 11 and 12, the chief minister pointed out that 12 subjects with 44 textbooks are sourced from NCERT. He alleged that students in these classes are exposed to textbooks influenced by vested interests. He also raised concerns about the potential impact on young minds: “What is the danger due to this? It will change the way children view society and history. A generation that is full of prejudices and lacks a sense of humanity will be molded. It will endanger our secular thinking and fraternal society.”
In response to NCERT’s motive to lessen the textbook load and rationalize content, the chief minister highlighted a lack of transparency: “They say that such opinions are put forward by experts. But, who these experts are has not even been revealed.”
