NCERT to introduce textbooks on N-E states

TAKING A cue from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effort to woo the Northeast, the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will prepare textbooks on the culture and life of the eight Northeastern states, which will be prescribed as supplementary reading for school students.

The decision was taken on April 12 at a meeting of NCERT’S Executive Committee chaired by HRD Minister Smriti Irani. The books, sources said, are expected to be ready in a year, but the NCERT is yet to figure out which classes they will be tailored for.

The NCERT, an autonomous organisation under the Union HRD Ministry, is mandated to advise the central and state governments on school education, especially matters related to school curriculum. Its textbooks are prescribed by all private schools affiliated to CBSE and government schools.

“The idea is social integration. There are many students from the Northeast, who study in the different parts of the country and complain of social discrimination and alienation. If youngsters read about their life and culture growing up, this problem could be alleviated to quite an extent,” said an NCERT official, who did not wish to identified.

The NCERT, on request of the Sikkim government, has also agreed to develop reading material on organic farming, which is another focus area of the NDA-II government. Modi, during his recent visit to Sikkim this year, had batted for expansion of organic farming across the country as part of efforts to transform the agriculture sector entailing better remuneration for the farmers.