Lok Sabha Question No. 30 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2019-02-04
Subject: Reducing NCERT Syllabus
Ministry: HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
Asked by: ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO.30 TO BE ANSWERED ON 04.02.2019

## Reducing NCERT Syllabus

## 30. SHRI ASHOK SHANKARRAO CHAVAN

Will the Minister of HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT be pleased to state:

- (a) whether the Government has decided to reduce NCERT syllabus by half;
- (b) if so, the details thereof along with the aims and objectives thereto;
- (c) the time by which the reduced syllabus is likely to be made effective;
- (d) whether  the  Government  proposes  reforms  in  school  education  system  and  if  so,  the details thereof; and
- (e) the steps taken/being taken by the Government to improve the quality of teachers?

## ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (DR. SATYA PAL SINGH)

(a) to (c) The purpose of education is to bring out a good human being out of the system. For  real  development  along  with  knowledge,  Life  Skill  education,  value  education,  physical education, experiential learning is essential. Creative skills need to be nurtured. It was demand from all stakeholders that because of heavy curriculum, there is no time left for all these aspects. Also rote learning is not the way forward. Therefore, School Syllabus must be rationalized. To achieve this, the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) was advised to undertake an exercise to review its syllabus with a view to reducing the curriculum load on the students.    Accordingly,  NCERT has undertaken review of its textbooks under the initiative of rationalisation  of  curriculum.  They invited suggestions from different stakeholders. About one lakh suggestions were received from around 27 thousand stakeholders. These suggestions have been  analysed  by  a  Committee  constituted  for  this  purpose.  The  NCERT  textbooks  are  at different  stages  of  finalization  on  the  basis  of  the  suggestions  received  and  analysed  by  the Committee.

(d) The Government is in process of formulating a New Education Policy.  The exercise of preparing  a  New  Education  Policy  is  still  ongoing  as  the  Government  has  constituted  a Committee for preparation of the Draft National Education Policy under the Chairmanship of Dr. K. Kasturirangan.  The report of the Committee is awaited.

(e) The  National  Council  for  Teacher  Education  (NCTE),  mandated  for  providing  quality teacher  education  to  the  prospective  teachers,  has  set  norms  and  standards  for  infrastructure, instructional  facilities  and  qualification  and  experience  of  faculty  for  the  teacher  education institutions in which teachers are educated. For this purpose, NCTE has revised its Recognition, Norms and Procedure, Regulations 2014. Further, the erstwhile Centrally Sponsored Scheme on Teacher Education (CSSTE), now subsumed in Samagra Shiksha, aims to provide infrastructural and institutional support to Government Teacher Education Institutions (TEIs). To emphasize the focus  on  quality  interventions  and  teacher  training,  CSSTE  provides  for  programme  related interventions  such  as  Capacity  Building,  Specific  projects  for  academic  activities,  Induction Training of Teacher Educators, Programme and Activities, Faculty Development and Technology  Support,  etc.,  to  Teacher  Education  Institutes,  viz.,  State  Council  of  Educational Research and Training (SCERT), District Institutes of Education and Training (DIETs), Block Institutes  of  Education  (BITEs),  Colleges  of  Teacher  Education  (CTEs)  and  Institute  of Advanced Studies in Education (IASEs).

Further,  Section  23(2)  of  the  RTE  Act  has  been  amended  to  extend  the  period  of  inservice training for untrained elementary teachers to 31 st March, 2019 in all the States. As per the above amendment, all untrained in-service teachers working in Government, Government- aided, and Private un-aided schools should acquire minimum qualification as laid down by an academic authority, authorized by the Central Government, by 31 st March, 2019. The National Institute of Open  Schooling  (NIOS)  has  been  entrusted  to  conduct  this  training  through  ODL  (Open Distance Learning) mode. The online D.El.Ed. course has been started from 3 rd October, 2017. More than 13.7 lakh teachers have joined these courses.

Further,  a  four  year  B.Ed  integrated  course  to  bring  about  qualitative  improvement  in teacher education programmes in India has been conceptualised and regulations for this course has been published in official gazette on 22 nd November, 2018. The model curriculum prepared for  this  course  includes  crucial  aspects  like  Gender,  Inclusive  education,  Information  and Cummunications Technology (ICT), Yoga, Global Citizenship Education (GCED) and Health & Sanitation.  The  teaching  specialization  would  primarily  be  for  the  primary  levels  and  the secondary level.

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