The National Council of Educational Research and Training has dropped the Preamble to the Constitution from all Class 3 textbooks and retained it only in two Class 6 textbooks for the ongoing school year, reported The Telegraph.
In the old textbooks for Class 6, the Preamble was printed in the Hindi textbook Durva, the English book HoneySuckle, the science textbook and all three social science books – Our Pasts-I, Social and Political Life-I and The Earth Our Habitat, reported the newspaper.
However, in the revised versions, the Preamble is printed only in the science textbook Curiosity and the Hindi textbook Malhar.
The National Council of Educational Research and Training has also updated its social science textbook. Instead of three books on the subject last year, it has published only one book, Exploring Society: India and Beyond, for the ongoing school term.
The book has replaced the Preamble with a section on fundamental rights and fundamental duties, reported The Telegraph.
According to the newspaper, the revised English textbook, Poorvi, features the national anthem while the Sanskrit textbook Deepakam features both the national anthem and the national song.
These revisions are in accordance with changes to the National Education Policy introduced in 2020 by the National Democratic Alliance government, the newspaper reported.
The National Council for Educational Research and Training has made other sweeping changes to schoolbooks as part of these revisions.
For example, it has removed all mentions of Ayodhya’s Babri Masjid by name the new Class 12 textbook for political science. It now refers to it instead as a “three-domed structure [that] was built at the site of Shri Ram’s birthplace”.
Sections on Mughal rule in India and the nationwide Emergency imposed in 1975 have also been excised from textbooks.