After the National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) drew flak in 2017 for excluding literary works of progressive authors and poets from school textbooks giving into the demands hardliner Islamists, the government decided for an overhaul of the curriculum.
However, the process to bring a major change in the curriculum will be not starting this year due to the national elections. The NCTB expects to initiate in the next year.
“We will start it in 2019 in line with recommendations made by educationists, which also include cutting down the number of textbook. The new curriculum may be introduced in 2020,” NCTB Chairman Narayan Chandra Saha told Bangla Tribune.
After the 2017 revision, which many saw as a compromise to placate religious pressure groups, the government announced a panel to recommend changes. But it was only tasked with correcting major errors and change language as necessary to make the texts clearer and more pleasant to read.
But the excluded contents were not brought back.
According to sources at the education ministry, an NCTB meeting on Apr 26 decided to formulate new curriculums for schools and madrasas, which will come into effect from 2020.
The process was scheduled to start this year, but the government is reluctant to take such a huge task in the year of election, said people familiar with the matter.
The national election is due late this year, when the NCTB and education ministry will remain largely busy with printing and distributing textbooks to education offices across the country.
“We have been instructed to finish the process earlier this year, but still we are falling behind schedule. The first phase of printing and distributing has started. The matter of the second phase will be tabled in cabinet next week. The work order will be issued as soon as the green-light is given,” NCTB Member Enamul Haque Siddiqui told Bangla Tribune.
Asked whether any changes in the curriculum are being brought, he said, “We are only fixing typos and spelling mistakes this year.”