'Why Teach About Riots': NCERT Chief On Tweaks In Textbooks, Refutes 'Saffronisation Of Curriculum' Claim | Exclusive

'why teach about riots': ncert chief on tweaks in textbooks, refutes 'saffronisation of curriculum' claim

New Delhi: Hatred, violence are not subjects of teaching in school and they should not be the focus of textbooks, the director of National Council of Educational Research Training (NCERT) Dinesh Prasad Saklani said to Times Now on Sunday amid a row over the latest changes in the Class 12 political science textbook.

Speaking exclusively to Times Now, NCERT Dinesh Prasad Saklani said, "Revision of textbooks done by subject experts, I don't dictate or interfere in the process." While speaking about tweaks regarding the Gujarat riots, the NCERT Director said, "Hatred, and violence are not subjects of teaching in school and it should not be the focus of textbooks. History taught in schools to inform about facts, not to make it a battleground."

"If anything becomes irrelevant, it will have to be changed. Revision of textbooks a global practice, it's in the interest of education," he added.

Saklani further said "why should we teach students about riots?"

Meanwhile, rejecting accusations of saffronisation of the school curriculum, NCERT's director has said that references to Gujarat riots and Babri masjid demolition were modified in school textbooks because teaching about riots "can create violent and depressed citizens.

"Should we teach our students in a manner that they become offensive, create hatred in society or become victim of hatred? Is that education's purpose? Should we teach about riots to such young children ...when they grow up, they can learn about it but why school textbooks. Let them understand what happened and why it happened when they grow up.The hue and cry about the changes is irrelevant," he said.

Notably, Saklani's remarks come at a time when new textbooks have hit the market with several deletions and changes. The revised Class 12 political science textbook, does not mention the Babri Masjid, but refers to it as a "three domed structure." It has pruned the Ayodhya section from four to two pages and deleted details from the earlier version.

Asked about allegations of saffronisation of curriculum and ultimately textbooks, Saklani said, "If something has become irrelevant ...it will have to be changed. Why shouldn't it be changed. I don't see any saffronisation here."