The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is yet to restore the content it had dropped from the school syllabus in 2022 citing Covid-induced disruption, raising questions over its intent behind the exercise.

Some educationists said the NCERT’s decision to delete 30 per cent of the syllabus and material from textbooks was politically motivated and aimed at pleasing the government, which was not happy with certain content.

The issue has assumed more significance since the National Testing Agency (NTA), which conducts entrance tests, has decided to withdraw certain exam relaxations that it had allowed during the pandemic.

In a notification issued on Thursday, the NTA said the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) Main 2025 will return to its original format where section B will contain five questions per subject and candidates will be required to attempt all five.

In 2021, the NTA had increased the number of questions to 10 and gave candidates the option to attempt any five questions.

“The modification was introduced as a temporary measure to accommodate the challenges posed during the pandemic. Since the declaration of the UN World
Health Organisation on Covid-19 as the end of public health emergency on May 5, 2023, it has been decided to discontinue the optional section of the questions,” the notification said.

In 2022, the NCERT had selectively dropped content from textbooks citing rationalisation of content load. Passages on the Mughals, the caste system, rise of Islam and Jawaharlal Nehru were discarded, attracting allegations of ideological bias.

Ashok Agrawal, a member of the Court of Delhi University (DU), said that the exercise of dropping content reflected the government’s agenda.

“The NCERT selectively removed content on subjects that the government does
not want students to know. Had it been a genuine exercise, the content should have
been brought back by now. But the NCERT has continued with the so-called rationalised content. It shows that the NCERT carried out the government’s agenda,” Agrawal said.

Academician Nandita Narain, a retired faculty member of St Stephen’s College, said the pandemic was used as a pretext to introduce changes to the textbooks.

“Covid-19 was the excuse to change the books. They dropped large portions of Mughal history, Islam and social hierarchy. These changes were ideologically motivated,” she said.