The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has formed a 19-member panel to finalise textbooks and learning materials for schools under the National Education Policy. The high-powered National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) will develop school syllabus for Classes 3 to 12, and revise the existing textbooks of Classes 1 to 2.
According to a notification dated 21st July issued by NCERT, the committee will be headed by Mahesh Chandra Pant, the chancellor of the National Institute of Education and Planning in Administration. Professor Manjul Bhargava from Princeton University will be the co-chairperson.
The other 17 members of the NSTC come from various fields, and some of the notable names include Infosys Foundation Chairperson Sudha Murthy, economists Bibek Debroy and Sanjeev Sanyal, singer Shankar Mahadevan, badminton player U Vimal Kumar etc.
The full list of the members is given below:
- Shri M. C. Pant, Chancellor, National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA) – Chairperson
- Prof. Manjul Bhargava, Princeton University – Co-Chairperson
- Dr. Sudha Murty, Chairperson, Infosys Foundation
- Dr. Bibek Debroy, Chairman, EAC-PM
- Dr. Shekhar Mande, Former DG, CSIR, Distinguished Professor, Savitribai Phule Pune University, Pune
- Prof. Sujatha Ramdorai, University of British Columbia, Canada
- Shri Shankar Mahadevan, Music Maestro, Mumbai
- Shri U. Vimal Kumar, Director, Prakash Padukone Badminton Academy, Bangalore
- Prof. Michel Danino, Visiting Professor, IT_Gandhinagar
- Smt. Surina Rajan, IAS (retd.), Haryana, former DG, HIPA
- Shri Chamu Krishna Shastri, Chairperson, Bhartiya Bhasha Samiti
- Shri Sanjeev Sanyal, Member, EAC-PM
- Dr. M.D. Srinivas, Chairman, Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai
- Shri Gajanan Londhe, Head, Programme Office, NSTC
- Dr Rabin Chhetri, Director, SCERT, Sikkim
- Prof. Pratyusha Kumar Mandal, NCERT
- Prof. Dinesh Kumar, NCERT
- Prof. Kirti Kapoor, NCERT
- Prof. Ranjana Arora, NCERT
NCERT Chairperson Professor Dinesh Prasad Saklani said that each member will have a role to play within the panel.
The committee will work to align the curriculum with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) developed by the K Kasturirangan-led steering committee as a part of the implementation of the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
As per the notification, the textbooks and other teaching learning materials will cover all curricular areas, and the subjects within, that are part of the NCF-SE, as also their support materials such as teacher handbooks. The textbooks and other teaching learning materials developed and finalized by the NSTC shall be published and distributed by the NCERT.
The 19-member NSTC will be assisted by ‘Curricular Area Groups’ (CAGs) to develop textbooks and other teaching leaming materials for each of the subjects included in syllabus. The Chairperson and Co-chairperson of NSTC will constitute the CAGs with appropriate experts and with the support of NCERT.
The notification says that the NSTC will be free to invite other experts for advice, consultation, and support as and when required. The NSTC will be assisted by a Programme Office set-up by the NCERT and NCERT will provide all necessary expertise and support as per the needs of the NSTC.
A senior ministry official said that experts from different domains have been selected as members of the committee and that its chairperson will now constitute various Curriculum Area Groups (CAGs) by engaging different subject experts.
A total of 11 CAGs will be constituted to work on the 11 domains mentioned in NCF-SE, like mathematics, science, physical education, and social sciences etc. Officials said that more than 1,000 subject experts will be engaged in the process of curriculum development and textbook designing in various domains and subjects.
NCERT has also constituted a National Oversight Committee (NOC) to support the works of the NSCT. The NOC will be chaired by Jagbir Singh, the chancellor of the Central University of Punjab.
The committee is expected to complete the process by the end of this academic year, so that new textbooks are ready by the beginning of the nest academic year. The government had earlier said that it intends to introduce new textbooks from the 2024-25 academic session.
