After GST, govt mulls one-nation, one syllabus

New Delhi: After the successful implementation of one nation, one tax, the government is mulling to start one nation, one curriculum initiative from next academic session. The move, which is aimed at standardisation of school education to improve the quality of teaching and learning, would be implemented by Gujarat, the home state of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, from next academic session by introducing NCERT books in every school of the state.

According to sources, all states have been asked to replace their state education board books by NCERT books to maintain the uniformity of education. "Every state has its own set of books for schoolchildren. In private schools, NCERT books, as well as books of private publishers, are being used, while in most of the government schools, books of their own state boards and some NCERT books are being used. The existing practice does not provide uniform education," the sources said.

"The objective behind the initiative is to improve the quality of education by providing equal education to everyone. When every state would have the same curriculum and similar books, the standard of education across the country would be equal. There would be no disparity," the sources added.

In a bid to make available NCERT books in advance, the government had recently launched a web portal to enable schools to place orders for their books online in advance. With the help of the web portal, even individual buyers would also be able to place their orders and books would be delivered at their doorstep.

According to sources, the Gujarat government has urged the HRD ministry to make available all NCERT books for their schools in advance so that the state government won't face any difficulty in implementing the initiative. Following the roll out of NCERT books in Gujarat, all BJP-ruled states would also introduce the books of the public publisher.

In order to improve the learning outcomes, the Maharashtra government has decided to print dos and don'ts in books of every class so that students should get to know what they all have to know after passing a particular class. Notably, other states are planning to publish posters, organise consultation session with students to aware them about learning outcomes.

It's pertinent to mention here that following the response from over 2,000 private schools for books published by the NCERT, the HRD ministry had mulled to make NCERT books compulsory for CBSE schools after conducting a review of the educational council's capacity.

In this regard, Union HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had advised schools to stick to books published by the NCERT rather than those by private publishers.