Under the National Education Policy (NEP 2020), the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) will develop a new set of textbooks. These textbooks will be launched in the 2024-2025 academic session.

In the 2021-2022 academic session, NCERT textbooks experienced a procedure of rationalization. This measure was a critical step taken to lighten the content load, viewing the well-being of students during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose was to develop a curriculum that is more effortless, helpful, and facilitative to the student's mental health.

In its official Twitter handle, NCERT stated that the rationalisation of NCERT textbooks done in 2021-2022 was a need-based practice desired to reduce the content load, keeping in view the student's mental health during the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath.

Factual Statement on Rationalised #NCERT Textbooks. @EduMinOfIndia @niostwit @cbseindia29 @KVS_HQ @CommissionerNVS @ProfSaklani pic.twitter.com/eZV9YUq7cV

— NCERT (@ncert) June 4, 2023

NCERT added that the rationalized textbooks are part of this transitional phase, that is, this academic year 2023-2024 only, as NCERT is engaged in the procedure of concluding the National Curricular Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) based on NEP 2020. This will be followed by creating a new set of textbooks that will be used from the next academic year- 2024-2025. So, this should be very obvious that these textbooks are not for a lengthy time.

NCERT has also terminated the chemistry periodic table from the Class IX science textbook. The action had different responses, with some condemning it as regressive, and others shared links to the new book indicating that the topic has been moved to the Class XI syllabus instead of being bypassed completely.

It is essential to record that there are varying views on this matter, and further examination of the modified curriculum and syllabus would deliver a more precise understanding of the modifications made.