Kerala Approves 173 New Textbooks Aligned With State Framework, Not NEP 2020
Sukanya Nandi | 17 January 2024 | News 18
The Kerala School Curriculum Steering Committee has given its consent to 173 new textbooks for Classes 1,3,5,7 and 9. These textbooks, as per the newly introduced Curriculum Framework, are set to be printed in February, reported The Hindu. The textbooks are available in Malayalam, English, Tamil, and Kannada.
More than 900 teachers spent one and a half years working on the curriculum reform. Speaking at a press conference in Thiruvananthapuram, the minister shared that all books in the new curriculum will now include the Malayalam alphabet. He also mentioned that input from children and the panchayat level was actively sought. He also emphasised the popularity and transparency of the process, noting that the curriculum underwent a comprehensive and time-consuming revision.
Earlier, Kerala’s general education minister, V Sivankutty, disclosed that textbooks for Classes 2, 4, 6, 8, and 10 are scheduled for release in 2025.
In October 2023, Kerala introduced a new Curriculum Framework, shaped by the National Curriculum Framework (NCF) 2023 but with several important modifications. After 16 years, the state has made significant changes to the curriculum since the last update in 2007, which was aligned with the National Curriculum Framework 2005. Additional modifications were made in 2013. However, no changes occurred in the curriculum for the past 10 years.