CBSE circular bans prescribing books other than NCERT’s

Neeraj Bagga

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, June 19

Even as there is no end in sight to the agitation of parents of wards studying in private schools, a circular of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) strictly prohibiting the introduction of books other than the NCERT has come as a relief to them.

In response to a plea of an RTI activist, Vishal Joshi, CBSE additional director Sugandh Sharma said in spite of many directions from the Board, it had been found that some of the schools affiliated to the CBSE still forced children and their parents to buy textbooks other than NCERT textbooks as was evident from the complaints received by the Board.

He said the Board believed that prescribing too many textbooks and coercing parents and children to buy them was an unhealthy practice that was educationally unsound, especially since NCERT textual materials were the base for preparing test items in Board examinations and the question paper of the CBSE was set according to the prescribed syllabus of the subject.

He mentioned that all these instructions were issued to the schools in a circular number Acad-41/2015 dated July 20, 2015, regarding use of textbooks for various classes by schools affiliated to the Board.

RTI activist Joshi opined that private schools promoting books other than those of the NCERT’s were not only pocketing money in commission but also putting unnecessary mental pressure on children.

He said the CBSE was also running its own sales counters at Ajmer, Bhopal, Shillong, Bhubaneswar, Mysore, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata, Guwahati and New Delhi for catering to the needs of individuals and schools. He demanded the setting up of a similar centre at least in any of the centrally located cities of the state.

He added that the books published by the NCERT for Classes I to XII were also available free of cost at epathshala.nic.in and the publications by the CBSE were available free of cost at e-cbse portal at www.cbse.nic.in. He said the Board also directed its affiliated schools to share this information with the students and their parents so as to let then avail the benefits of this facility.

Meanwhile, the Punjab Parents Association (PPA) has called off its protest to be held at Bhandari railway over bridge from 3 pm to 6 pm today. PPA president MK Sharma said the decision was taken after the request of the Punjab Police.