'Bhagavad Gita, Vedas learnings should be incorporated in NCERT textbooks,' says Centre

The Centre has informed the Lok Sabha that the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for Class 6 and 7 should incorporate the knowledge of “Vedas” and references to Shrimad Bhagavad Gita, and its shlokas in Sanskrit must be included in the textbooks of classes 11 and 12. Minister of State for Education, Annapurna Devi, in a letter, stated that the government aims to establish the Indian Knowledge System (IKS) Division in the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) in 2020.

"To become the knowledge power in this century, we must understand our heritage and teach the world the 'Indian way' of doing things," Minister of State for Education Annapurna Devi noted in the letter. 

Vision to promote interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research

The decision was taken by the education ministry with a vision to promote interdisciplinary and trans-disciplinary research on all aspects of Indian Knowledge Systems (IKS). It will also help preserve and disseminate IKS knowledge for further research and societal applications. National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has initiated the development of National Curriculum Frameworks, Devi informed. The inclusion of Bhagavad Gita is basis inputs from various ministries, states, departments, and Union Territories. It will boost the traditional knowledge of India among the students, who will also draw learnings from the traditional text. National Education Policy (NEP) 2022 Para 4.27 states that traditional and cultural knowledge is both sustainable and strives for the welfare of the common people. 

“The committee is of the view that the department may make adequate efforts to highlight and present the diversity of religious teachings as brought out in all the ancient scriptures and educative/religious texts, through the school textbooks and incorporate the same in the revised NCF," the report sent to the Upper House of the parliament by the panel stated. 

Additionally, the parliamentary panel also recommended that the NCERT include the sacrifices and the stories of the “unsung freedom fighters” of the country from the less focussed regions of the northeast. An emphasis should be laid on the freedom fighters and their role in the country's struggle for independence, in the school textbooks, for the students to know rich Indian history, the panel noted. The parliamentary panel urged the Union Ministry to coordinate with the NCERT and the suggestion was tabled in the Rajya Sabha on December 19 this week. Other additions to the textbook include the contributions of prominent Indian women personalities in different fields. Such material should be included as the "mandatory reading" for the students, the panel stressed in the report titled ‘Reforms in Content and Design of School Textbooks' was tabled in the Upper House.