Turning Over A New Leaf: NCERT to Release Class 3, 6 Textbooks with New Syllabus in April-May – News18

The National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will be releasing textbooks for classes 3 and 6 in line with the new syllabus in line with the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) in April and May, respectively.

The council announced the prospective arrival of the books for these classes on Thursday after the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) directive to all its affiliated schools last week to follow the new syllabi and textbooks for classes 3 and 6 from the 2024-25 academic session.

“Class 3 textbooks shall be available in the printed version from the last week of April this year while class 6 textbooks will be available by Mid-May, 2024. To enable teachers to prepare students of class 6 for the new curriculum, a bridge course for the same has already been uploaded on the NCERT portal,” the council’s director DP Saklani said in a letter to education secretaries of all states and other educational bodies.

He also said that 1.21 crore copies of the 2023-2024 editions for various classes are out, with more coming regularly, while the buffer stock for classes 4, 5, 9, and 11 is ready.

“Digital copies of all NCERT textbooks are freely available on the NCERT portal, DIKSHA, and ePathshala portal and app. Please share this information with students, teachers and parents for their benefit,” the letter read.

The NCERT is tasked with developing new books for all classes aligned with the NCF-SE, which was released by the union ministry of education (MoE) last August. The NCF has different concepts for different levels of learning: for instance, art and play-based learning for foundational stages; introduction of vocational skills from class 6 onwards; no stringent streaming of arts, humanities, and science for senior classes; and twice-a-year board examinations for classes 10 and 12.

However, the NCERT has so far released new textbooks aligned with the NCF for classes 1 and 2 only. The council also made it clear that it will be coming up with new textbooks only for classes 3 and 6 in the 2024-25 academic session.

For the rest of the classes, the CBSE’s academic department has already issued a circular to all schools saying that the books that were used last year will be used this year too, as revised textbooks have still not been received by them from the NCERT. The council in a meeting with the board last month had informed that some of the textbooks were in the “finalisation” stage while others were still being developed.