New NCERT Class 9 Books 2026-27: Chapter List for Exploration, Ganita Manjari and Understanding Society

If you are in Class 9 this year, your textbooks are not the ones your older cousins used. NCERT rewrote all three core Class 9 books for the 2026-27 session under the National Curriculum Framework (NCF-SE 2023). The old Science book with its separate physics, chemistry and biology chapters is gone, Maths has new chapters with new names, and Social Science, which used to be four separate books, is now one.

That means most guides, notes and question banks you find online are for a syllabus that no longer exists. This page lists every chapter of the new books, explains what changed, and links each chapter to its notes, NCERT solutions and practice on Kedovo.

What changed in Class 9 this year

• Science is now a single book, Exploration: Textbook of Science for Grade 9, with 13 integrated chapters. Physics, chemistry and biology topics sit side by side instead of in separate units.
• Mathematics is Ganita Manjari, published in two parts. Part 1 (chapters 1 to 8) came out in April 2026. Part 2 (chapters 9 to 14) was released on 21 September 2026 and covers propositions, data, algorithms, quadrilaterals, linear equations, and surface area and volume.
• Social Science is Understanding Society: India and Beyond, also in two parts. Part 1 has nine chapters that bring history, geography, political science and economics into one book. Part 2 was released at the end of September 2026.

Some well-known chapters are no longer part of Class 9: The French Revolution, Physical Features of India, Gravitation as its own chapter, and The Story of Village Palampur among them. If a guide you are using has those chapters, it is for the old syllabus.

Exploration (Class 9 Science): all 13 chapters

• Chapter 1: Exploration, Entering the World of Secondary Science
• Chapter 2: Cell, The Building Block of Life
• Chapter 3: Tissues in Action
• Chapter 4: Describing Motion Around Us
• Chapter 5: Exploring Mixtures and their Separation
• Chapter 6: How Forces Affect Motion
• Chapter 7: Work, Energy and Simple Machines
• Chapter 8: Journey Inside the Atom
• Chapter 9: Atomic Foundations of Matter
• Chapter 10: Sound Waves, Characteristics and Applications
• Chapter 11: Reproduction, How Life Continues
• Chapter 12: Patterns in Life, Diversity and Classification
• Chapter 13: Earth as a System, Energy, Matter and Life

The order matters more than it used to. Chapters build on each other across subjects: the motion and force chapters lead into work and energy, and the two atom chapters are meant to be read together. If you skip around, read the chapter just before the one you are stuck on.

Ganita Manjari Part 1 (Class 9 Maths): chapters 1 to 8

• Chapter 1: Orienting Yourself, The Use of Coordinates
• Chapter 2: Introduction to Linear Polynomials
• Chapter 3: The World of Numbers
• Chapter 4: Exploring Algebraic Identities
• Chapter 5: I'm Up and Down, and Round and Round
• Chapter 6: Measuring Space, Perimeter and Area
• Chapter 7: The Mathematics of Maybe, Introduction to Probability
• Chapter 8: Predicting What Comes Next, Exploring Sequences and Progressions

The new Maths book asks you to explain your reasoning far more than the old one did. Many exercise questions have no single numerical answer; they ask why a method works or which of two approaches is better. When you check your work against a solution, compare the reasoning, not just the final number.

Understanding Society: India and Beyond, Part 1 (Class 9 Social Science)

• Chapter 1: Understanding Social Science
• Chapter 2: Shaping of the Earth's Surface (Geography)
• Chapter 3: Atmosphere and Climate (Geography)
• Chapter 4: Early Humans and Beginning of Civilisation (History)
• Chapter 5: State and Society up to 1000 CE (History)
• Chapter 6: Democracy (Political Science)
• Chapter 7: Elections (Political Science)
• Chapter 8: Building Blocks in Economics, The Problem of Choice (Economics)
• Chapter 9: The Price Puzzle, What Drives the Market (Economics)

Because the four subjects now share one book, exam questions increasingly connect them. A question on climate can ask how it shaped where early settlements grew; a question on elections can ask about the economics of a campaign promise. Read the chapter openers and summaries carefully: they are where the book draws those links.

How to study the new books

Start with the textbook, not a guide. The new books are written to be read. They are full of activities, "think about it" boxes and short case studies, and those are exactly what competency-based exam questions are built from. A guide written for the old syllabus will not cover them.

Do every in-text question, not just the end-of-chapter exercise. In the new books a lot of the thinking happens mid-chapter. Treat those questions as part of the exercise.

Practise the newer question formats early. Class 9 is when CBSE's competency-based formats start to matter: multiple choice questions that test understanding, assertion and reason questions, and case-based questions built on a short passage. Our guides to competency-based questions, assertion and reason questions and case study questions explain how each one is marked.

Revise in short loops. Read a section, close the book, and write down what you remember. Then check. Flashcards are built for exactly this, which is why every chapter above has a set.

Everything for Class 9 in one place

Every chapter linked above has its own page on Kedovo with chapter notes (except Maths), step-by-step NCERT solutions, flashcards, extra questions with model answers, MCQs, assertion and reason questions and case study questions, plus an AI tutor that already knows which chapter you are on. The chapter notes are free to read without an account.

You can see all three subjects together on the Class 9 page, or go straight to Class 9 Science, Class 9 Maths or Class 9 Social Science.