The National Curriculum and Textbook Board (NCTB) has decided to include new content on the July mass uprising in several secondary and higher secondary textbooks from the next academic year.
From January, students will receive free textbooks of Bangladesh and Global Studies and History and World Civilization with lessons on the 2024 July uprising. Content on the 1990 mass uprising will also be included to give students a broader understanding of post-independence democratic movements.
This follows an earlier step this year when poems and essays related to the uprising were added to Bangla and English textbooks from Class V to Class X. Now, the topics will be expanded in prose form in history-related subjects for Classes VI to X. For higher secondary, similar content is being prepared for Bangla and English textbooks, scheduled for release before Class XI starts on September 15.
NCTB officials said the decision received final approval at a meeting of the National Curriculum Coordination Committee earlier this week. The board also confirmed that language and factual errors in existing content would be corrected in the new edition.
For 2026, NCTB is preparing around 300 million free textbooks for distribution, including over 214 million for secondary students. Printing is set to begin this month with pre-primary books, followed by Class I–III. The goal is to finish printing by November 30 to avoid delays that affected the current academic year. NCTB Chairman (Acting) Prof. Robiul Kabir Chowdhury said, “We hope to deliver all books at the very beginning of the academic year. This time, printing presses will be monitored directly through CCTV cameras.”
The inclusion marks a significant step in documenting recent democratic struggles in Bangladesh’s education system.
