With the new NCERT Class 9 textbooks, to be used in the academic session that began this week, yet to be released, NCERT Director Dinesh Prasad Saklani said on Thursday that the books are being reviewed as much as possible to reduce the possibility of an “explosive” reaction.

“Most textbooks will be out between April 10 and 15, except for one or two. You can understand which one or two these will be…because there is a lot of discussion on them, and when they are out sometimes there is an explosion (visfot). To limit the explosion, we are trying to ensure that with more caution… it is being reviewed as much as possible…,” Saklani said at the launch of the CBSE’s curriculum for the current academic session.

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Saklani’s comments come a few weeks after the NCERT withdrew a Class 8 Social Science textbook over a chapter on “corruption in the judiciary”. The book was withdrawn a day after its release in February. The chapter prompted the Supreme Court to take up a suo motu case in the matter. The court came down heavily on the NCERT, calling it a “calculated move to undermine and demean the dignity of judiciary”. It imposed a “complete blanket ban” on further publication, reprinting or digital dissemination of the book.

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A panel comprising ex-attorney general K K Venugopal and former SC judges, Justice Indu Malhotra and Justice Aniruddha Bose, will now review the chapter.

Saklani also said on Thursday that when something new is brought in, “there are teething troubles.”

Referring to the CBSE curriculum’s three-language formula, he said: “Three languages are there. Two are necessary to be native to India. When we start decolonisation, decolonisation of the mind is the first thing to be done. Perception is very important. If we don’t change that, we don’t change realities… It is not only that we got freedom from colonial rule… as we remember that thousands of years of slavery and torture and…invasions enslaved us…”

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Stating that several people are involved in developing the new textbooks, Saklani said: “The old books…the perception was different…one person, two people, a few people…we have 4,000 people working with us…The problem is that it takes us some time. More the number of people, the more the discussions, and that is when the truth comes out. Satya jo hota hai, woh kabhi-kabhi chubhne wala bhi hota hain (the truth can sometimes be bitter) …with academicians, discussions go on for a long time.”

The NCERT is developing new textbooks in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education 2023. While books for classes 1 to 8 have been released, those for Class 9 are set to be out for use in the current academic session.