National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani on Tuesday clarified that chapters on Mughals had not been ‘dropped’ from CBSE books, and said that its a “lie”.

“It’s a lie. (Chapters on) Mughals have not been dropped. There was a rationalisation process last year because due to COVID, there was pressure on students everywhere,” the NCERT director told ANI. The NCERT chief further said that expert committees examined the books from standards 6-12. “They recommended that if this chapter is dropped, it won’t affect the knowledge of the children and an unnecessary burden can be removed…The debate is unnecessary. Those who don’t know can check the textbooks…,” Saklani said.

He said that even today students are studying the history of the Mughals in NCERT’s class 7th book.

“Along with this, the history of Mughals is being taught in Empires in section-2 of the 11th class book. And in the class 12th book there were 2 chapters on the history of the Mughals, out of which theme nine was removed last year, while theme eight is still being taught to the students. This year no chapter has been removed from any book,” Saklani further said.

“We are working as per NEP (National Education Policy) 2020. This is a transition phase. NEP 2020 speaks of reducing the content load. We are implementing it. NCF (National Curriculum Framework) for school education is being formed, it will be finalised soon. Textbooks will be printed in 2024 as per NEP. We have not dropped anything right now,” the NCERT chief said while stressing the National Education Policy.

On Monday, Uttar Pradesh Secondary Education Minister Gulab Devi also denied the reports claiming of removing the chapter of the Mughal Sultanate from CBSE and UP Board. “There is no change of any kind in our syllabus. Those who are running this type of misleading news, I request them not to run such news,” Gulab Devi said.

If there will be any further changes under the new education policy, then it cannot be said. At present, there is no change. The curriculum which was in 2022 will remain the same this time in 2023-24, she said.