NCERT Says Reports of Preamble Being Dropped From Class 9 Textbook Are 'Misleading'
NCERT denies removing the Constitution’s Preamble from Class 9 textbooks, as new chapters on the Emergency and Election Commission spark political debate.
- Education News
- 3 min read
The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has pushed back against claims that the Preamble to the Constitution has been removed from the new Class 9 Social Science textbook, calling such reports misleading. At the same time, a newly added chapter praising the Election Commission of India has triggered a separate political controversy.
NCERT's Clarification
According to NCERT, the confusion stems from how the curriculum itself has changed. Under the new National Curriculum Framework, topics that used to be packed into a single textbook have now been spread out across different grades instead.
NCERT sources say the Preamble has not disappeared, it still appears on the opening pages of all new NCERT textbooks, including every Social Science textbook. It is also part of the Class 10 syllabus. The sources added that constitutional values such as secularism, justice, liberty, and socialism are already introduced earlier, in Classes 6 to 8, particularly in the Class 7 Social Science textbook, and will be explained in greater depth again in Class 10.
In short, NCERT's position is that nothing has been deleted; the content has simply been moved to a different stage of schooling.
What Critics Are Saying
However, this explanation has not fully settled the debate. Several reports on the revised Class 9 textbook, Understanding Society: India and Beyond, point out that the Preamble does not appear in the chapter that introduces the Constitution itself, and that the words "secular" and "secularism" are missing from the main text of that chapter as well.
The same revised textbook has, for the first time, added a detailed chapter on the Emergency imposed in India between 1975 and 1977, describing it as a major challenge to Indian democracy during that period.
These changes have set off a political back-and-forth. The Congress party has accused the government of trying to weaken constitutional values and push a one-sided version of history through textbooks. On the other side, Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan has defended the addition of the Emergency chapter, saying students should learn about that period so such events are not repeated.
New Chapter Praises Election Commission Amid SIR Row
Adding to the debate, NCERT has also introduced a new chapter titled "Elections" in the same Class 9 textbook. The chapter describes India's election system as "unparalleled," pointing to the country's massive voter base of over 96.8 crore eligible voters.
The chapter walks students through how the Election Commission manages elections from start to finish, updating voter lists, accepting candidate nominations, enforcing campaign rules, coordinating with state police for security, overseeing vote counting, and settling disputes, largely with the help of technology and e-governance systems.
This new chapter has surfaced at a sensitive time, as the Election Commission's Special Intensive Revision (SIR) of voter rolls is currently a hot political topic. Opposition leaders have raised concerns over the SIR exercise in recent months, and the timing of a chapter praising the Commission's systems has drawn criticism from some opposition voices, who see it as an attempt to shape young students' views in favour of the government's current position.
Earlier editions of the Class 9 textbook had focused more on the Election Commission's independence as an institution and its power to enforce the Model Code of Conduct or order re-polls. The revised version, by comparison, leans more on explaining the Commission's day-to-day functioning and its role in conducting elections.
Published By : Priya Pathak
Published On: 27 June 2026 at 14:59 IST