New Delhi: Central Board of Secondary Examination (CBSE) has advised schools against prescribing ‘too many’ books, dubbing it as an ‘unhealthy practice’ while asserting that NCERT books are sufficient to ace in the exams.
In a circular issued to schools, the board said that prescribing too many books and coercing parents and children to buy them is unhealthy practice that is educationally unsound.
“Especially since NCERT textual materials are the base for preparing test items in the Board Examinations and the Question Paper of CBSE is set according to prescribed syllabus of the subject,” it said.
The circular further said that NCERT is running its own sales counters at Bhopal, Shillong, Ajmer, Mysore, Bhubaneshwar, Bengaluru, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, Guwahati and New Delhi for catering to the needs of individuals and schools.
“Any school affiliated to CBSE can procure their requirement of NCERT textbooks in bulk from any of these centers,” it said.
“It is, therefore reiterated that parents of CBSE affiliated schools should not be coerced to buy additional textbooks by the school authorities,” it added.
NCERT has given copyright to eight states and the states have to print books to meet the demands.
The online editions of NCERT books are available free of cost at epathshala.nic.in and the publications by CBSE are available free of cost at e-CBSE Portal at www.cbse.nic.in. (ANI)