Sudha Murthy, Shankar Mahadevan on NCERT's 19-member panel to develop new textbooks
New Delhi, Aug 12: Infosys Foundation Chairman Sudha Murthy, music maestro Shankar Mahadevan, economist Sanjeev Sanyal and 16 others are part of a new committee constituted by the NCERT to revise textbooks according to the new curriculum, officials said.
The 19-member National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) will be headed by National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) chancellor MC Pant and develop textbooks for classes 3 to 12.
The committee is mandated to prepare the textbooks, and other teaching learning materials, which will, in turn, be published and used by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), as per the terms of reference, a senior official said.
"The NSTC will be assisted by Curricular Area Groups (CAGs) in the development of the teaching-learning material for each curricular area. These groups will include appropriate experts for the said subject, and will be formed by the chairperson and the co-Chairperson of NSTC, with the assistance of NCERT," the official said.
The committee will work to align the curriculum with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) developed by the K Kasturirangan-led steering committee as a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
While the final NCF-SE has already been submitted to the Union ministry of education, it is yet to be released in the public domain. The draft of the framework was released in April.
The committee is co-chaired by Manjul Bhargav, a professor of mathematics at Princeton University. Its other members include mathematician Sujatha Ramdorai, badminton player U Vimal Kumar, chairperson of Centre for Policy Studies MD Srinivas, and chairperson of Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti Chamu Krishna Shastry.
The dropping of several topics and portions from NCERT textbooks in May triggered a controversy, with the opposition blaming the BJP-led Centre for "whitewashing with vengeance".
At the heart of the controversy was the fact that while the changes made as part of a rationalisation exercise were notified, some of the controversial deletions were not mentioned. This led to allegations about a bid to delete these portions surreptitiously.
Although the NCERT acknowledged that the omissions in the textbooks may have been unintentional, they declined to reverse the deletions.
The NCERT said the removals were made based on the recommendations provided by experts.
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Sudan’s civil war worsens: Forced mass displacement, widespread starvation, rampant sexual violence
Khartoum: Sudan’s ongoing civil war has led to a severe humanitarian crisis, characterised by widespread hunger, forced displacement, and staggering levels of sexual violence. It has resulted in the world’s largest displacement crisis this year, as reported by the UN’s International Organisation for Migration (IOM) this week.
The conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has resulted in thousands of deaths and displaced millions from their homes. The UN Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for Sudan, as cited by Al Jazeera, said that paramilitaries are targeting the female population. Mohamed Chande Othman, Chair of the Fact-Finding Mission, stressed that there is currently no safe place for women and girls in Sudan due to the rising incidents of abduction for sexual slavery.
Meanwhile, over 14 million people have been displaced in Sudan and more than half of those displaced are women, with over a quarter being children under five years old. In some areas, children are reportedly dying from starvation, and the recent rainy season has worsened the crisis by causing flooding and additional displacement.
Furthermore, the UN food agencies have warned of deadly hunger levels in 16 "hunger hotspots," with particular concern for the Palestinian territories, Sudan, South Sudan, Mali, and Haiti. In South Sudan the number of people facing starvation and death are projected to have nearly doubled from April and July 2024 compared to the same period last year.
IOM Director-General Amy Pope emphasised that this is easily the “most neglected crisis in the world” today and requires greater attention. She stated that millions are suffering, and there is a serious risk of the conflict igniting regional instability from the Sahel to the Horn of Africa and the Red Sea.
“Hunger, disease and sexual violence are rampant. For the people of Sudan, this is a living nightmare,” she asserted.
