Infosys Foundation Chairman Sudha Murthy has joined the new committee constituted by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Along with her, singer-composer Shankar Mahadevan, Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM) chairman Bibek Debroy and Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council member Sanjeev Sanyal can also decide on the final curriculum, textbooks, and learning material for classes 3 to 12.
Besides, the other members include Professor Sujatha Ramdorai, U Vimal Kuma, Dr Shekhar Mande (former DG), Pratyusha Kumar Mandal, Michel Danino, Surina Rajan, Chamu Krishna Shastri, Gajanan Londhe, Kirti Kapoor and Ranjana Arora, Rabin Chhetri and Dinesh Kumar.
However, the appointment of Murthy and Mahadevan to the 19-member panel of NCERT has left the internet divided. While one wrote, “An outstanding panel,” another mentioned, “I have respect for Sudha Murthy & family. Bangalore wouldn’t be today’s Metropolitan without them. But she’s not an academic & not qualified to prepare NCERT textbooks. Destroying the life time work of Many Historians like Romila Thapar will come back to haunt future generations!”
While several netizens welcomed the decision with tweets like, “Good news now multiple field domains included in framing the curriculum for young minds of #NewIndia,” and “Looking forward to the new NCERT text books which should look SIMPLE & MUSICAL to hear. Welcome Music Maestro Shankar Mahadevan and our Simplest Dr Sudha Murthy,” others feel they do not have a track record in academics to decide on the school curriculum. “The outrage on the inclusion of Sudha Murthy and Shankar Mahadevan on the NCERT expert panel is because both persons do not have a proven track record in the field of academics. They might be well educated & well read but that alone shouldn’t qualify them to decide the syllabus,” wrote one user on Twitter.