National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) is an autonomous organization set up in the year 1961 by the Government of India to assist and advise the Central and State Governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education. It is an apex organization that has been built to advise and assist the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), Govt. of India and Departments of Education in States and Union Territories in formulation and implementation of their policies and programmes in the field of Education.

NCERT plays a major role in promoting and aiding the collaborative research in areas related to school education. It facilitates others by preparing and publishing the textbooks, teaching-learning materials and journals and conducts teacher's training programmes for the fulfilment of establishing quality education. The NCERT also interacts and works in collaboration with the international organizations, inviting foreign delegations and offers various training facilities to educational personnel from developing countries. .

NCERT has comprehensive extension programme in which departments of the National Institute of Education (NIE), Central Institute of Educational Technology (CIET), Regional Institutes of Education (RIEs), Central Institute of Vocational Education (CIVE) are engaged in extension activities. Several programmes are organised in rural and backward areas to reach out to functionaries in these areas. The NCERT has been offering training facilities, usually through attachment programmes and participation in workshops, to education workers of other countries. The NCERT publishes textbooks for school subjects from Classes I to XII that are used in government and private schools across India that follow the CBSE curriculum.