Last week, after the Supreme Court imposed a “complete blanket ban” on the NCERT class 8 social science textbook over a section on “corruption in the judiciary”, Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the Centre is taking it “seriously” and that it would be “inquired into”. He said action would be taken against those who were involved in preparing the chapter.The NCERT has a set of groups and committees that prepare and oversee the new textbooks that are being developed in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCFSE) 2023. In its order on the textbook last week, the Supreme Court had directed D P Saklani, Director of the NCERT, to submit a comprehensive list and details pertaining to one of these committees — the National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC) — and the names and credentials of the textbook development team responsible for drafting the chapter on the judiciary.So what are these groups and committees, and what is the process behind drafting the book? What is the National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee?A 19-member NSTC was constituted by the NCERT in 2023, the same year that the NCFSE, which is the guiding document for the syllabus and textbooks, was developed. This overarching committee has been tasked with developing the school syllabus and textbooks. For this, it works with curricular area groups (CAGs).M C Pant, who was then the Chancellor at the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA), is the chairperson of the NSTC, with Manjul Bhargava, math professor at Princeton University, as its co-chairperson. In addition to the chairpersons, the committee now comprises 16 members after Bibek Debroy, Chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC-PM), and a member of the NSTC, passed away in 2024.Story continues below this adAlso Read | Before ‘corruption in judiciary’, the 15 instances where NCERT textbook revisions went unchallengedAmong members of the NSTC are Sudha Murty, founder of Infosys Foundation; singer Shankar Mahadevan; Chamu Krishna Shastri, chairperson of the Bharatiya Bhasha Samiti constituted by the Education Ministry for promotion of Indian languages; former badminton player and then coach U Vimal Kumar; Sanjeev Sanyal, member, EAC-PM; retired Haryana-cadre IAS officer Surina Rajan; Michel Danino, guest professor, IIT Gandhinagar; Rabin Chhetri, SCERT Director, Sikkim.What does the NSTC do, and how are the books prepared?The notification that constituted the NSTC in 2023 said that the chairperson and the co-chairperson of the committee, with the NCERT’s support, will constitute curricular area groups (CAGs) that will comprise experts who will develop the textbooks for each subject. “The NSTC will be free to invite other experts for advice, consultation, and support…,” going by the notification.The 35-member CAG for social science was constituted in 2023, and is headed by Danino. The NCERT notification that constitutes the group includes current and former professors in the social sciences — Heeraman Tiwari at JNU; Banabina Brahma at Kokrajhar University; Sita Ram Dubey, former head of the Department of Ancient Indian History, Culture and Archaeology, BHU; and Meenakshi Jain, who taught history at DU’s Gargi College, and was nominated to Rajya Sabha last year.The processStory continues below this adGoing by the notification, a subset of the CAG will develop the social science textbook. It is learnt that the CAG forms a textbook development team, which prepares the chapters. The draft that is prepared by the team then undergoes revisions and reviews.The social science book that was withdrawn last week listed 51 members as part of the textbook development team — including members of the NSTC for guidance, CAG chairperson, contributors, and reviewers. Reviewers for this book included professors at the NCERT, teachers and Director Principal of a private school in Gurgaon, and an associate professor at the University of Kashmir. It is then submitted to the NSTC for review.Also Read | In eye of NCERT storm over ‘corruption in judiciary’ section, meet the team behind bookIn 2023, the NCERT also constituted a 13-member National Curriculum Frameworks Oversight Committee (NOC) to ensure “full alignment” of textbooks with the NCFSE. It is to support the NSTC “in various ways such as providing detailed orientation to the members of the NSTC” and the CAGs. The NOC has Jagbir Singh, Chancellor of the Central University of Punjab as its chairperson, and includes MC Pant, who is also chairperson of the NSTC. Going by the NCERT’s 2023 notification constituting the NOC, the panel also includes Zoho Corporation founder Sridhar Vembu.What was the system in place for monitoring when the old books were developed?Story continues below this adThe old NCERT school textbooks were published from 2006 to 2008, developed in line with the NCF of 2005. Different books were published for history, geography, and political science, unlike the current system where two books cover all three themes. The process included an advisory committee for textbooks in social science headed by the late historian Hari Vasudevan, along with a textbook development committee for each of the books.In Opinion | Will purging reference to judicial corruption from NCERT textbooks solve the real problem?The then Ministry of Human Resource Development constituted a monitoring committee in 2005 to oversee the process by which the syllabus and textbooks are created. It was tasked with ensuring that “textbooks are free of errors and distortions”, and that “syllabi and textbooks finalised by the NCERT reflect the values enshrined in the Constitution in the organisation of knowledge in all subjects”.This committee was chaired by Prof Mrinal Miri with Prof GP Deshpande as its co-chairman. It included six representatives of State governments — the school education Secretary or Principal Secretary of four States, an SCERT Director, and a state school board chairperson. It also included NCERT governing council members, and members of what was then the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE).