WCD Minister Maneka Gandhi had suggested the idea to Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar last year during a telephone conversation.
"The National Council Of Educational Research And Training (NCERT) has published the information regarding Childline (1098) 24x7 Helpline for children and POCSO e-box on the back side of the front cover of all course books from Class 6 to Class 12. To equip the children with the information regarding the possible modes of protection/complaints," the ministry said in a statement.
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Gandhi had requested her Cabinet colleague to popularise POCSO e-box and Childline 1098 through NCERT publications, screening of educational films on child sexual abuse in schools and having strict norms to employ the support staff.
Gandhi thanked the HRD Minister and NCERT for implementing her suggestion and stated that parents, guardians and teachers should remain vigilant about children as well as their behaviour. Any suspected situation should be reported immediately on the Childline No.1098 and the POCSO e-Box, the ministry said.
Through these course books, the information is expected to reach approximately 26 crore students in 15 lakh schools.
NCERT was also advised to include a chapter in social science subject regarding the issues mentioned above.
"The narrative may continue till Class 12 for having a reasonable impact on young minds. The information will not just reach these children, but is about to stay with them on daily basis. As a result, it is expected that the children will be more aware and they may use the Child Helpline or POCSO e-box, in case of any distress. The easy accessibility of this information in the hand of children themselves may also deter the prospective abusers, at least to a reasonable extent," the ministry said.
The information via these books will also be available to 10 lakh teachers along with the family members and care givers of these children.
[With PTI Inputs]
“The NCERT will pay the delivery charges in case of individual cases so that more people can opt for the books easily. We had discussed the matter with e-commerce websites but they were asking for more money to deliver the books,” Hindustan Times quoted a senior NCERT official as saying.
As many as 3,500 schools affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had registered with the NCERT for books for the new academic session. All have reportedly received the textbooks.
If you have plans to order NCERT books then log on to www.ncertbooks.ncert.gov.in and place your order and the delivery of the same without any extra charges.
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Within a month after the NCERT portal was launched last year, over 2.4 crore textbooks were pre-booked by schools and students from across the country.
In February this year, HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar had said that the NCERT syllabus will be reduced by half from the 2019 academic session to provide relief to school students.
The minister said, school syllabus was more than that of BA and B.Com courses and it needed to be reduced by half so that students get time for other activities for their all-round development.
“The CBSE has not mandated schools to prescribe only NCERT text books,” Kushwaha informed the Rajya Sabha.
"The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has not issued any advisory/directive to schools affiliated to it to compulsorily prescribe textbook published by NCERT," Kushwaha said in a written response to a question in the Upper House.
Besides, he informed that NCERT has conducted a review of all its textbooks and rectified factual errors, if any, besides updating data.
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Earlier there was news that the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had warned schools against the sale of books from private publishers in their premises.
It was also said that the Board had said that the schools could open small outlets in their premises to sell books but they could sell only NCERT books and other stationery items in those outlets. But, they cannot sell any book from private publishers in their outlets.
In a communication to schools, the Board said that the schools are allowed to open small outlets in their premises to sell books but they can sell only NCERT books and other stationery items in those outlets.
However, they cannot sell any book from private publishers in their outlets.
"Selling books other than those from NCERT will be considered a violation and will attract action against the school. Parents are free to buy textbooks and stationery items from either the shop in school premises or vendors outside," it read.
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Earlier in April, CBSE had asked schools to stop sale of books and uniforms inside school premises and refrain from operating as “commercial establishments.”
Later, the Board allowed the schools affiliated to it to sell NCERT books, stationery and other material required by students inside school premises.
Besides, it allowed schools to place indent for purchase of NCERT books directly through its website for distribution among their students.
The private schools had ordered 52 lakh books last year.
Anil Swarup, secretary, School Education, Ministry of Human Resource Development, in a tweet said 143 lakh books have been ordered by private schools affiliated to the board this year against 52 lakh last year reflecting confidence in NCERT books.
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Taking cognizance of the problems faced by students and parents due to shortage of books, the council had earlier launched the portal in August this year for pre-booking and doorstep delivery of textbooks from the next academic session. Worth mentioning, the shortage of books was forcing parents to buy books at exorbitant prices from private publishers.
Through the online mode, NCERT is accepting orders from both private and government schools, state administrations and individuals.
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Just like other e-tailer, the NCERT-launched portal has tracking facility for the ordered products.
Besides, NCERT is reportedly mulling to make available its books on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon soon with an aim to streamline its online sale process further.
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Taking into cognizance the problems being faced by students and parents due to shortage of books, the council had launched the portal last month for pre-booking and doorstep delivery of textbooks from the next academic session. Worth mentioning, the shortage of books was forcing parents to buy books at exorbitant prices from private publishers.
"We have so far received a requirement of over 2.4 crore copies for the academic session 2018-19. The portal is open till September 23 following which we will assess the total need for printing of textbooks," PTI quoted NCERT Director, Hrushikesh Senapaty as saying.
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Karnataka Board has so far placed an order for 37 lakh books while Arunachal Pradesh has requested for over 29 lakh books. Similarly, schools from Odisha have also ordered for the NCERT textbooks.
"The orders have been received from both private and government schools, state administrations and individuals,” said Senapaty.
Just like other e-tailer, the NCERT-launched portal has tracking facility for the ordered products.
Besides, NCERT is reportedly mulling to make available its books on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon soon with an aim to streamline its online sale process further.
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Note: NCERT textbooks can be pre-booked by directly visiting the official website of NCERT
The department of psychology and foundation of education of NCERT is presently finalizing the guidelines for the test, which will be taken in Class 9, by implementing it at regional institutes, including Kendriya Vidyalayas, on trial basis. The test will be implemented soon, said sources.
This is not going to be a test only rather it’s more about judging students’ aptitude. Students have their own strength and weakness as per subjects. And this test will help them discover the techniques they already posses. This is not a textbook-based test. It will check the students’ perceptive ability and mechanical reasoning, among other factors, reported Hindustan Times quoting an NCERT official.
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Students will take the test, comprising verbal and non-verbal sections and seven sub-tests, at individual-level. Besides, diagrams and figures will be used to test the verbal, mechanical, abstract, spatial and perceptive rationale of the students, the official added.
NCERT is also in discussions with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) to implement it in all the affiliated schools of the board. Meanwhile, the council has already made it clear that it will provide all the required tools and materials to CBSE for the test, sources said.
Amending its April circular, the CBSE said schools can now open shops on their premises to sell NCERT books, stationery and other material required by students.
"Schools are allowed to place indent for purchase of NCERT books directly through its website for distribution among their students and for this purpose, a tuck shop may be opened inside the premises of the schools," said a fresh circular of CBSE issued to schools.
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"Stationery and other material required by students are also allowed to be sold from this ‘tuck’ shop. The earlier circular stands amended," it added.
The Board in April had asked schools to stop sale of books and uniforms inside school premises and refrain from operating as “commercial establishments.”
Earlier this month, NCERT had launched a portal allowing parents and schools across the country to place orders for textbooks and get them home-delivered. Besides, it is reportedly mulling to make its books available on e-commerce platforms like Flipkart and Amazon soon.
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Private schools in Odisha are engaged in commercial activities like sale of uniforms and books, and parents are forced to buy these things from the institutions at exorbitant prices, says report.
Earlier this week, a man was allegedly thrashed by staff of a privately-run school, Deepika English Medium School, located in Sector-5 in Rourkela for opposing sale of uniforms on the premises of the educational institution.
The incident came to fore after a video footage of the attack on the man went viral.
On being asked, the man said the staff beat him after he opposed the sale of such products inside the school premises as it was against the laid norms of CBSE. However, the school staff allegedly beat him up.
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After getting information, the local Tehsildar rushed to the spot to take a stock of the situation. He rescued the injured man and seized a vehicle laden with books. Besides, he locked a room of the school filled with uniforms.
Similarly, CBSE has directed schools to use NCERT books for the students from Class 1 to 8. But schools here are using books from their own publication.
Nitish Barik, whose child is a student of Balasore DAV School, told OTV that the school authorities are forcing parents to buy books from their publication. “We reminded them about the CBSE guidelines but they blatantly denied,” he said.
A staff of the school, Akhandal Nayak, also admitted to using of DAV publication books.
It is worth mentioning that the CBSE had issued an advisory to all its affiliated schools to not to indulge in commercial activities by way of selling of books, stationary, uniforms, school bags and others and strictly mentioned to adhere to the provisions of “Affiliation Bye-Laws of the Board”.
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The board had also released a circular warning the schools not to force students and parents to buy books other than NCERT/CBSE. However, schools are flouting all the norms at will without any impediment.
A team of NCERT experts is scheduled to arrive here on December 3 to impart a three-month-long training to the teachers about the new syllabus, Education minister Ratan Lal Nath said.
"We shall introduce complete NCERT textbooks and CBSE syllabus from next academic year, because the students in our state were lagging behind the standard of the country. We want them to be as competitive as students of other states," Nath in the assembly on Friday.
Shortly after coming to power in March ending the 25-year uninterrupted rule of the CPI(M)-led Left Front, the BJP-Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) government has set up an expert committee on the change of school syllabus.
The expert panel has recommended National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) curriculum for schools in Tripura.
The panel also suggested implementation of the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) syllabus across all government and government-aided schools in the state.
Chief Whip of the Assembly Kalyani Roy of the BJP said, recently class 9 students of a government school in Tripura's Unakoti district were asked in an examination question paper to write a short note on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The question paper went viral on social media earlier this month.
In his reply, Nath said the education department has examined the question paper and found that the syllabus included a chapter on electoral politics and political parties.
"I was surprised by media reports on this issue. I enquired and found that the syllabus has got a chapter on the BJP, the Congress, the CPI(M), the CPI etc. School textbooks have also got mention of rigging and booth capturing," the minister said.
The previous Left Front regime had indulged in crimsonisation of the school curriculum by teaching wrong lessons to students, Nath alleged.
He was speaking while inaugurating a lecture series on Bharat Bodh (Idea of India) organised by Indira Gandhi National Open University (IGNOU) in association with Bhartiya Shikshan Mandal (BSM).
"Bharat's (India's) education system became such that we kept on forgetting Bharat's culture and insisted on remembering the rest of the world's.
"It is necessary to know and remember the world but this does not imply that we can forget Bharat. It is necessary to understand the Bharat and its glorious past," Javadekar said.
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"We will replicate such courses with NCERT because we think our true identity begins with the identity of our nation. Without knowing it, we will not be able to decipher the truth about the world. We are open to discussions about the value of our past," he said.
The minister said all philosophy and Indology students should attend this lecture series and added that people did not know about India and they should know the true identity of their country.
"We will soon launch a new formal academic programme called certificate course in Bharat Bodh. This will talk about the cultural wealth of India and will also take a critical look at it," IGNOU Vice Chancellor Ravindra Kumar said.
Kumar said everything would not be taken for granted but critically examined and whatever was valuable would be retained.
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Admitting the appeal by the CBSE, a division bench of Justices M Venugopal and M Nirmal Kumar ordered issuance of notice to the National Council of Educational Research And Training (NCERT), Centre and directed the original petitioner advocate M Purushothaman to file counter by August 6.
The CBSE submitted that the appeal is only against the direction to prescribe only NCERT books and not any other books published by private publishers.
"We are not assailing the order against homework till class 2," it said.
The matter relates to a petition filed by Purushothaman seeking direction to the CBSE to ensure that all the schools under its purview follow only the NCERT prescribed syllabus books.
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Allowing the plea by Purushothaman, Justice N Kirubakaran had directed the CBSE not to give home work to children up to class 2 as prescribed by the NCERT and strictly follow the syllabus and books provided by the council alone for other classes.
Challenging the order, the CBSE moved the high court.