The HRD Ministry’s decision to drop chapters like democratic rights, food security in India, federalism, citizenship, and secularism from the CBSE school syllabus, has triggered massive criticism from several quarters, including Opposition leaders and netizens.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) announced that the syllabus for 2020-21 would be reduced by a third because of the “extraordinary situation” as the world fights the coronavirus pandemic.
Apart from these chapters, sub-sections, including “Why do we need Local Governments?” and “Growth of Local Government in India”, have been removed from the curriculum.
“These topics will not be accessed in themselves but teachers have been asked to explain to the students of their relevance with respect to existing topics,” said a HRD Ministry official.
The deletions were made on the direction of the HRD Ministry which asked the CBSE to reduce the syllabus for Classes IX to XII by 30 per cent to make up for the academic loss caused by the pandemic and the subsequent closure of schools.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said she was “shocked” over CBSE dropping secularism, federalism, citizenship chapters and appealed for revocation.
She took to social media to register her opposition, the first politician to object the move. She also appealed to the Union HRD Ministry to not curtail these subjects “at any cost”.
In an official statement, the CBSE said, “The heads of schools and teachers may ensure that the topics that have been reduced are also explained to the students to the extent required to connect different topics. However, the reduced syllabus will not be part of the topics for internal assessment and year-end Board Examination.”
The Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE) already announced to reduce their syllabus for Class X and XII to “make up for the loss in instructional hours during the current session 2020-21”.
“Alternative academic calendar and inputs from the NCERT on transacting the curriculum using different strategies shall also be part of the teaching pedagogy in the affiliated schools,” said the senior official.
For Classes 1 to VIII, the National Council of Education Research and Training (NCERT) has already notified an alternative calendar and learning outcomes. The board had previously asked NCERT to suggest topics and themes which are “either repeated or overlapped or learning outcomes related to it are being covered under other chapters” when it was looking to reduce the syllabus.