Thiruvananthapuram: Reacting to the controversy surrounding NCERT's decision to omit certain portions from the school syllabus, Kerala education minister V Sivankutty made it clear that excluded parts from higher secondary textbooks will be taught in Kerala schools.
"They say that Gandhiji is dead. Gandhi was shot dead. Many portions were excluded, including the theory of evolution," Sivankutty said.
In an interaction with the media, the minister said the government's decision came after the state government-constituted curriculum committee discussed the matter in detail to take necessary action in this matter. "Relevant texts were randomly omitted from economics, political science, and history textbooks. It is not acceptable to us so we have decided to flag the issue. The idea of the formation of the curriculum committee is to include the omitted lessons," he said.
The minister also took umbrage of the fact that history was changed and relevant facts were excluded from textbooks. "NCERT has excluded Mughal history, Gujarat riots, and Darwin's theory of evolution from school textbooks," the minister added.
Sivankutty further said that the state government can print textbooks independently unless the central government denies permission to teach these subjects. The curriculum steering committee meeting of the Kerala State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) on Tuesday decided to include the portions omitted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) in the state school syllabus, said an official statement.
The minister also spoke about the state government's pledge to ensure constitutional and secular values. "Kerala will examine how to teach it. Objections to the omission of these subjects shall be intimated in writing to the central government," he said.
