The Hindu : NCERT curriculum: row over consultation

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Apr 12, 2002

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NCERT curriculum: row over consultation

By Anita Joshua

NEW DELHI APRIL 11. Now that the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) and its drafting process have been brought under the judicial scanner, NCERT's claim of "wider-than-ever-before consultations'' is being challenged by several of those named in its "inclusive list of persons... consulted''.

For, anyone who has been sent a copy of the NCFSE — journalists included, — is deemed to have been "consulted'' in the reckoning of NCERT while finalising its new curriculum.

No doubt, copies were sent to the hundreds of persons named in the list, but the question that most of them are asking is whether distribution and a request for comments can be termed as "consultation'' and portrayed as an alternative to the established consultative mechanism instituted in the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).

The only advisory body of the Government in the field of education, the CABE, according to the National Policy on Education (NPE), 1986, — from which the new curriculum draws its very existence — "will play a pivotal role in reviewing educational development...''

In some cases, like that of Patricia Uberoi of the Institute of Economic Growth, no curriculum framework or syllabus was ever sent to her. Nor were her views ever sought on the curriculum framework. Prof. Uberoi had attended a workshop and delivered a lecture under the heading "curriculum revision'' at the NCERT, but she said: "I didn't realise this made me a `consultant' in the real sense of the word.''

Upset over finding her name being attached to the curriculum framework with which she has had no association, Prof. Uberoi has filed a statement to this effect in the Supreme Court. And, she is not alone. At least seven others including the former Union Minister, M.G.K. Menon, the former Academic Director of the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts, Kapila Vatsyayan, the former Chairperson of the National Commission for Women, Vibha Parthasarathy, and the eminent sociologist, T.K. Oommen, have filed similar statements in the Supreme Court.

They are just representative of the several listed individuals who insist that they have not been sent copies or consulted in the real sense of the term. Among those who have no recollection whatsoever of receiving a copy of the NCFSE (but are deemed to have been consulted) are the eminent economist, K.N. Raj, and JNU's Dipankar Gupta.

While Dr. Raj gave the NCERT the benefit of the doubt and said "my memory could be failing me'', Dr. Gupta was absolutely certain that no copy was sent to him. According to Dr. Gupta, the NCERT had asked him to write a textbook on sociology. "That was a couple of years ago. I put forth my conditions, and that was the last I heard from them.''

Questioning the entire process of "consultation'', the former NCERT Director, P.L. Malhotra — during whose term the NPE was finalised and the last curriculum revision undertaken — said he had been included in the list without ever being consulted. "They did send me a copy, but that is not consultation which has to be a two-way process.''

According to Mr. Malhotra, the NCERT had ignored the established procedure while drawing up the curriculum. "The States were not consulted in any formal manner. There is no difference in the level of `consultation' the NCERT has had with the State Education Ministers and Education Ministers of other countries as even the latter have only been sent copies of the curriculum framework.

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