Teaching about riots can create ‘violent, depressed’ citizens: NCERT director on textbook revisions
The NCERT has removed content on the 2002 Gujarat riots, the Babri Masjid demolition and the Emergency imposed in 1975 in its latest revision.
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Teaching about riots “can create violent and depressed citizens” National Council of Educational Research and Training director Dinesh Prasad Saklani told PTI on Saturday when asked about theremoval of references to the 2002 Gujarat riots and the demolition of the Babri Masjid from school textbooks.
The NCERT has also removed content on the Mughal rule in India and the nationwide Emergency imposed in 1975 among other such events from its textbooks.
In a note released on June 13, the NCERT had said that the revision was part of “rationalisation of contents in textbooks”. Changes have been made to textbooks for Classes 6 to Classes 12.
“Why should we teach about riots in school textbooks,” Saklani told PTI when asked about the revisions. “We want to create positive citizens, not violent and depressed individuals.”
He asked whether the NCERT should teach students in a manner that they become “offensive, create hatred in society or become victims of hatred”, reported PTI.
“Is that education’s purpose,” he asked. “Should we teach about riots to such young children? When they grow up, they can learn about it but why school textbooks? Let them understand what happened and why it happened when they grow up. The hue and cry about the changes is irrelevant.”
Saklani said that whatever text is changed...
