Guwahati : Amid reports that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) have removed the Preamble to the Constitution from school textbooks, the organization claimed that the allegations ‘do not have a sound basis.’
The Preamble to the Constitution has been dropped from several Class III and Class VI textbooks this year.
The Preamble has been removed from subjects such as languages and environmental studies (EVS).
However, Professor Ranjana Arora, Head of the Department of Curriculum Studies and Development at NCERT, claimed that the organization is giving great importance to various facets of Indian Constitution altogether.
“For the first time NCERT is giving great importance to various facets of the Indian Constitution- Preamble, Fundamental Duties, Fundamental Rights and the National Anthem,” she said.
“All these are being placed in various textbooks of various stages,” she added
“The allegations regarding the removal of the Preamble from the NCERT textbooks do not have a sound basis,” she added.
According to Professor Arora, the view that only the ‘Preamble reflects the Constitution and Constitutional Values is flawed and narrow.’
“Why should children not acquire Constitutional Values from Fundamental Duties, Fundamental Rights and National Anthem along with Preamble? We give equal importance to all of these for the holistic development of children following the vision of NEP – 2020,” she added
The NCERT, which published textbooks for all classes between 2005-06 and 2007-08, is revising them after the introduction of the latest National Education Policy (NEP) by the NDA government in 2020.
This year, new books have been issued for Classes III and VI, in accordance with the newly implemented National Curriculum Framework in mind
The Preamble had previously appeared in the first pages of the books for both grades.
Preamble is absent from all textbooks for Class III, however it is included in only two books for Class VI- the Hindi book Malhar and the science book Curiosity.