NEW DELHI: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) textbooks for some classes will cost less from next year, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has said.
The NCERT, which currently prints 5 crore textbooks a year, is working to augment its printing capacity to 15 crore from next year, he said.
Dharmendra Pradhan also announced that the new textbooks as per updated curriculum for classes 9 to 12 will be available from the 2026-27 academic session.
“In the next academic year, NCERT will publish 15 crore quality and affordable books….currently it publishes nearly 5 crore textbooks. Earlier there have been concerns about demand and supply issue about the textbooks, however, that will be addressed now,” Dharmendra Pradhan told the media.
“Since, the volume of printing of books is going to be high, the prices of textbooks for some classes will be reduced. However, the price will not be increased for any class to ensure there is no financial burden on the parents,” the Union Minister added.
He said that the process of updating of textbooks as per new National Curriculum Framework (NCF) is on.
Linguistic diversity
He said that the government has prioritised linguistic diversity and textbooks for Classes 1 and 2 are now available in 23 Indian languages.
“The development of competency-based, inclusive textbooks has progressed rapidly. New textbooks have been made available for seven out of 15 grades, with textbooks coming out for four more grades in the next academic year. Textbooks for Arts, Physical Education, and Well-being (Grades 3–8) and for Vocational Education (Grades 6–8) are being developed,” he told the media while listing out the priorities of the education sector.