Signing up for PM SHRI (PM Schools for Rising India) does not mean that the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) syllabus will be taught in schools in the state, General Education Minister V Sivankutty said.
Former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state president K Surendran’s remarks that content related to Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) co-founder KB Hedgewar and Hindutva ideologue VD Savarkar will be included in the Kerala curriculum were politically motivated and amounted to propaganda on Saturday.
Mr. Sivankutty alleged that Mr. Surendran had no idea about the state’s education policy. Kerala signs PM SHRI implementation agreement to utilize central funds to improve physical school infrastructure in government schools and enhance their academic quality. It was not to hand over the state curriculum to the Union Government. The state had its own strong curriculum and outlook on education, he said.
The minister claimed that the Union government’s moves towards rewriting history and communal education would not gain traction in the state. “The historical truth that Mahatma Gandhi was killed by Nathuram Godse cannot be erased from the textbooks in the state,” he said.
The state government, he said, had no intention of teaching students about Hedgewar and Savarkar, as Mr. Surendran had wished. Such remarks were an attempt by the BJP to create confusion in the education sector. “Government and aided schools in the state will continue to provide education that promotes constitutional values and secularism based on the curriculum here,” the minister said.
Published – 25 Oct 2025 20:33 IST
