Dharmendra Pradhan: New NCERT Textbooks till Grade 5 to be Developed in 22 Indian Languages

Vinod Kakumanu
April 6, 2023, 5:04 p.m.

A high-level meeting was held in Delhi on new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) and new textbooks based on National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 by the Union Education Minister, Dharmendra Pradhan. It was attended by Sanjay Kumar (Secretary, School Education), senior officials of the National Council of Educational Research & Training (NCERT) and members of National Steering Committee.

The Minister said that study materials (be it textbook, playbook or play-based material) till grade 5 will be prepared in 22 languages included in the Constitution’s 8^th schedule using technology. This will align with the NEP 2020 goal of providing multilingual education and its special emphasis on the mother tongue. Till now, NCERT books were provided in three languages- English, Hindi, and Urdu. Pradhan added that the NCERT’s learning-teaching material (LTM) ‘Jaadui Pitara’ would be expanded and made available to all schools as open education resources. He said, ‘There is a need to make it a mass movement so that innovative and creative youth will join hands to develop a variety of innovative learning-teaching materials.”

The process of revising school textbooks was started by the Centre in 2020, with the appointment of former Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman as the head of a 12-member committee entrusted with task of developing a new NCF.