New Delhi: The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has announced the inclusion of Theatre, Music, Drama, and Visual Arts in the school curriculum starting from Class 8. This update will be implemented from the academic year 2025–2026 and is in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 and the National Curriculum Framework for School Education (NCF-SE) 2023.

According to a recent post by NCERT on X (formerly known as Twitter) 'Art' will now become a mandatory subject for students. This means that all Class 8 students must study and clear the subject to be promoted to the next class, regardless of whether they voluntarily choose it.

To aid this transition, NCERT has introduced a new Art textbook titled Kriti, which will be taught in Class 8 from the 2025–2026 academic session.

Alongside Kriti, NCERT has also unveiled revised textbooks for Classes 8 and 5. For Class 8, a new English textbook named Poorvi and a Hindi textbook called Malhar have been released. For Class 5, the English and Hindi textbooks have been named Santoor and Veena, respectively.