Next Academic Session in Gujarat will feature NCERT text books in Maths and Science

Next Academic Session in Gujarat will feature NCERT text books in Maths and Science

From the next academic session, Gujarat Education department is all set to replace the math and science textbooks of the Gujarat Council of Educational Research and Training (GCERT) with the books from National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT). The books of the above mentioned subjects will be introduced in all the 58,000 schools across the state on pilot basis and only for classes from I-XI. Earlier, the decision was to introduce the books in all the schools affiliated to the Gujarat Secondary and Higher Secondary Education Board (GSHSEB) in a phases manner. However, the new decision of the education department will now impact 1.15 crore students of the state. “Since these subjects (mathematics and science) are relevant in view of the national entrance examinations like Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) and National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), it makes sense to replace the GCERT textbooks with the Central board,” Gujarat State School Textbook Board (GSSTB) chairman Nitin Pethani said justifying the Education Department’s decision. The idea of replacing the GCERT books with the NCERT books came into existence after viewing the poor performance of the students in the national exams. As a result, NCERT textbooks were introduced in the 57 schools — government and private included but when the same batch of the students appeared for the exams there were confusions all over. “Out of all the 11 districts where the pilot scheme was launched, 21 schools in Surat district had requested for the CBSE pattern exam. The remaining 36 schools wanted the GSHSEB exam pattern but based on NCERT syllabus. Since it was a pilot scheme with no conditions attached, the state education board had accepted their requests,” said GSHSEB Chairman A J Shah. Such multiplicity lead to confusion in conducting the exams and the challenge for the education board now is to streamline the evaluation process.