The exclusion of schools affiliated by the Indian Certificate of Secondary Education (ICSE) board from compulsion of books of National Council Education Research and Training (NCERT) is being opposed by the parents. The state cabinet on Wednesday made it compulsory for the all schools to recommend NCERT books however the schools affiliated under ICSE board were exempted from the order.
The President of All Uttarakhand Parents Association (AUPA) Neeraj Singhal said that all the schools should be brought under the ambit of the order. “More than 60 percent of the private schools in state about 80 percent of the private schools in Dehradun are under ICSE board. There is no point in exempting these schools. The parent’s association would meet the state education minister and register its strong protest on this anomaly,’’ he said. The AUPA President however welcomed the order of compulsion of NCERT books in the CBSE affiliated schools. The AUPA claims that all the private schools ask their students to purchase the books of private publishers which are costly and are inferior in quality than the books of NCERT.