Indian Institute of Madras (IIT) Madras director V Kamakoti, former vice-chancellor of the National Law School of India University (NLSIU) Bengaluru R Venkata Rao and Indian Council of Historical Research (ICHR) chairman Raghuvendra Tanwar are now part of the 20-member National Syllabus and Teaching Learning Material Committee (NSTC).
The committee, tasked with preparing the national syllabus and teacher learning material under the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT), was reconstituted through a notification on April 2.
Apart from Kamakoti, Rao and Tanwar, the newly constituted 20-member committee also includes Amarendra Prasad Behera, joint director-in-charge, Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), NCERT, as a new member.
The reconstituted NSTC no longer includes three names that were part of the old committee: Prof Michel Danino, former guest professor at IIT Gandhinagar; Bibek Debroy, former chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council (EAC), who died on November 1, 2024 and MD Srinivas, chairman of the Centre for Policy Studies, Chennai.
The revised Terms of Reference (ToR) adds that the national syllabus and teacher learning material will be approved, published and distributed by the NCERT, giving it formal approval authority instead of NSTC, and signaling a shift towards greater centralisation.
The revised ToR also introduces greater oversight by NCERT in decision-making, including the requirement for engagement with experts in consultation with NCERT.
