No method to evaluate quality of textbooks by pvt publishers, says govt

New Delhi: Amid a debate on the need to scrutinise the content of textbooks being prescribed in schools, the HRD Ministry has expressed its inability to evaluate the quality of textbooks of private publishers.

"There is no mechanism to evaluate the quality of textbooks of private publishers. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has no mandate to prescribe or recommend the textbooks of private publishers in its affiliated schools," Minister of State for HRD, Upendra Kushwaha, said in response to a written question in Lok Sabha.

"The government is very firm on promoting NCERT textbooks in CBSE schools," he added.

The comments by the minister come at a time when education experts are raising the issue of lack of scrutiny of the curriculum taught to children.

Excerpts from a Class IV environmental science textbook that suggested students to "kill a kitten" as part of an experiment had gone viral on social media, forcing the publisher to withdraw it from the market last month.

In another recent incident, a Class 12 Sociology book cited "ugliness" and physical disability of a girl as reasons behind the dowry issue prevalent in the country.