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Opinion National Interest PoV 50-Word Edit

ThePrint On Camera Videos In Pictures

Society & Culture Around Town Book Excerpts Vigyapanti The Dating Story

More Judiciary Education YourTurn Work With Us Campus Voice

NCERT’s Class 7 textbook uses the old Preamble without telling students why

NCERT does not identify the image in Class 7 textbook as the original 1949 Preamble, nor does it tell students that they are reading an earlier version of the constitutional text.

As the NCERT’s new syllabus textbooks reach students across the country, debate continues over the removal of the Preamble to the Constitution from the Class 9 social science textbook. The NCERT has responded by clarifying that the Preamble remains part of the new civics curriculum but has been redistributed across different classes.

This claim is factually correct—but it tells only part of the story.

Whenever school textbooks become the subject of public debate, the first responsibility is to return to the source. It is important to examine what the textbooks actually contain and then ask a deeper question: Will these changes help children become informed, thoughtful, and active citizens?

Looking beyond the headline 

A comparison of the previous and the new NCERT textbooks reveals that the Preamble has indeed disappeared from the Class 9 textbook. It has found a place in the Class 7 textbook on page 225. In fact, the chapter, “Constitutional Design”, in which the Preamble appeared in the old syllabus, is no longer included in the Class 9 textbook. The Preamble is now part of a chapter in Class 7 titled “The Constitution of India – an Introduction”.

This is an important distinction.

The Constitution has not been removed from the curriculum. Along with it, the Preamble and the discussion of constitutional values and principles have been introduced two years earlier.

From the perspective of civics education, this is........

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