Question : School Books by Private Publishers

(a) whether it is a fact that some CBSE recognised private schools in the country force students/parents to buy books from private publishers of their choice inspite of the fact that the prices of those books are much higher than NCERT text books;
(b) if so, the details thereof;
(c) whether the Government proposes to make it compulsory to use NCERT books in all the CBSE recognised schools; and
(d) if so, the details thereof along with the guidelines issued/proposed to be issued to private schools in this regard?

MINISTER OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT
(SMT. SMRITI ZUBIN IRANI)

(a) to (d): CBSE prescribes textbooks published by National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) for classes IX to XII. For classes I to VIII, CBSE although approves syllabus as per pattern of syllabus given by NCERT, it does not prescribe any textbooks for these classes. The National Curriculum Framework, 2005 (NCF) stipulates that region specific books take care of the local context, culture and resources and therefore different books for different regions better relate to the daily lives of the local students. CBSE has directed all its affiliated schools on 20.07.2015 that prescribing too many textbooks and coercing parents and children to buy them is an unhealthy practice and appropriate action will be taken against the erring schools if any such complaint is received. As regards schools forcing students/parents to buy books from private publishers of their choice, Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has not received any substantiated report in this regard. Moreover, as a part of the Digital India Campaign, this Ministry has launched ‘e-pathshala’ which is a single point repository of e-resources containing, NCERT text-books and various other learning resources.

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