M A I N   N E W S

States free to make Class X board exams optional
Tribune News Service and agencies

New Delhi, September 7
The protest from BJP education ministers notwithstanding, the preparation of a new school syllabus and textbooks from next academic session today was approved by the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE), which also approved the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2005.

Assuring that the curriculum being framed on the basis of this NCF 2005, Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh asserted the new exercise would be “flawless”.

On the concluding day of the 54th CABE meeting here today, both the Union Minister for HRD, Mr Arjun Singh and Prof Yashpal, Chairperson of the Steering Committee to draft the NCF 2005, proposed that the document should now be sent to the second stage.

About the NCF proposal on making Class X board examination optional, the minister said it was for the state governments to implement. Asked about the Central Board of Secondary Examination’s stand on the issue, he said it would be discussed in detail with CBSE Chairman N C Ganguly before a final decision was taken on the issue.

Mr Arjun Singh also said that NCERT would formulate the syllabi and bring out textbooks without any flaw, as “our intention is not to malign or say something against anybody.”

“We now move to the more difficult part, drafting the curriculum. A coordinating committee has already been set up to ensure that all suggestions that have been made, apart from those in the draft are incorporated in the syllabus and the textbooks”, said Mr Singh assuaging concerns expressed by the Education Ministers of the BJP ruled states.

These ministers had staged a walkout yesterday alleging that their suggestions had not been accepted. They also expressed concern that the draft had failed to address “important issues like yoga and Sanskrit language” and had opposed the proposal to make Class X board exams optional.

Reacting to these allegations the HRD minister said, “It is sad that simple language could not be understood by those who staged a walkout...we wanted them to be a part of the syllabus drafting and they could not have taken part because of what happened the last time around... no one would have wanted a repeat of what happened”.

The minister denied allegations that he was trying to suppress the suggestions that were raised. “I request that the framework should be accepted and a mandate given to the NCERT to go ahead and prepare the books. With the monitoring committee already in place, nothing should go awry and I want to assure everyone that their suggestions will be included in the final draft”.

Pointing out “grave distortions” in the textbooks brought out during the previous BJP regime, he said it would be taken care of that history and social science textbooks did not have any distortion.

The textbooks to be made by experts of every field would be free from prejudices, open and would neither be confusing nor confining, the minister said.

Reiterating that the NCERT, entrusted to frame the curriculum would “maintain their professional integrity”, its Director, Prof Krishna Kumar maintained that the council had not seen any interference from the HRD Ministry.