Now,CBSE board says, syllabus snip just for a year, opposition parties hit back, alleged that this is nothing but the destruction of Constitution
NEW DELHI siyasat.net
Hours after a huge uproar over the choice of topics slashed for classes IX-XII to prune the syllabus by 30% in view of the pandemic, the Central Board of Secondary Education on sought to allay all misgivings, saying it is a “one-time measure” for a year to reduce exam stress.
According to some educational experets and social activists that the BJP is a government in a hurry, and anxious to prove its credentials to the RSS. Its primary accountability is to the RSS and not to the Indian people. It is going full steam ahead in its attempt to Hinduise the educational system, and to live up to the fascist projection of liberal and leftist influences as corruptive and anti national, that must be rooted out of the educational system.
Since the BJP took over the government, value education, moral science, patriotism and nationalism have become synonymous with Hindutva in the government vocabulary. In cultural festivals funded by the government, the BJP Ministers are actively and directly associated in promoting the identity of Indian culture with brahmanical myths. Chauvinism and parochialism are propagated by the UGC Chairman himself in the name of pride in the nation’s scientific achievements of Ancient Hindu India. RSS linked archaeologists have become virtual kar sevaks.
In the process of rationalising about 190 subjects for classes IX-XII, the Board slashed various important chapters like secularism, democratic rights, gender, religion and caste and food security, creating a major controversy.
But the Board pointed out that the topics being mentioned “as dropped are either being covered by the rationalised syllabus or in the Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT”.
“Each of the topics that have been wrongly mentioned in the media as deleted have been covered under Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT which is already in force for all the affiliated schools of the Board,” its statement read.
The list of omitted topics in Class IX Political Science syllabus includes democratic rights and structure of the Indian Constitution. From the Economics syllabus, the chapter on Food Security in India has been dropped.
There was mixed response from various stakeholders as several school representatives welcomed the move to reduce the course load on children, while a section of academicians said it appeared to be ideologically driven.
Some others said it would affect the quality of education and will work against students, especially who have to appear in entrance exams.
Many prominent people, including West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, shared their anguish.
However, it was the decision to drop topics related to Social Sciences which drew sharp reaction from opposition parties like the Congress, Left, Trinamool Congress, NCP and Shive Sena.
The Congress said removal of chapters on Federalism, Secularism, Nationalism and citizenship, which are the pillars of Indian democracy, is a crude joke on democracy and is highly condemnable.
Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said it is unconstitutional and wondered if it is part of a “bigger conspiracy”.
Singhvi also said that he would challenge the action in court in his individual capacity and not on behalf of the Congress.
“It is a crude joke and a wrong step and needs to be condemned. Federalism is the integral part of the basic structure of the Constitution. Federalism and secularism are institutional and non-institutional pillars of Indian Democracy. What message are you giving to our children if you say these words do not mean much,” he said at a press conference.
CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury termed the CBSE move as “atrocious” and “unacceptable”.
“Using the pandemic, Modi government is deleting sections dealing with India’s diversity, plurality, democracy etc that uphold our Constitutional values,” he tweeted.
He alleged that it is being done to advance the “RSS vision of an exclusivist, theocratic, intolerant, fascistic nation. This is nothing but the destruction of our Constitution”.
Shiv Sena MP Priyanka Chaturvedi said while reducing syllabus workload was a welcome, it should not become become an excuse to curtail different streams of thoughts.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee also objected to the CBSE’s decision to drop topics such as “citizenship”, “federalism” and “partition” .
She appealed to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry not to curtail important lessons at any cost.
“Shocked to know that the Central Govt has dropped topics like Citizenship, Federalism, Secularism & Partition in the name of reducing CBSE course during #COVIDCrisis. We strongly object to this & appeal @HRDMinistry, GoI to ensure these vital lessons aren’t curtailed at any cost,” Banerjee said in a tweet.
As a row erupted on the issue, the CBSE said the reduction of syllabus from classes 9 to 12 has been interpreted differently.
“Contrary to some of the impressions being created, it is clarified that the rationalization of syllabus up to 30 per cent has been undertaken for nearly 190 subjects for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only,” CBSE Secretary Anurag Tripathi said.
The board claimed the objective of rationalisation is to reduce the exam stress of students due to the prevailing health emergency and prevent learning gaps.
It asserted that no question shall be asked from the reduced syllabus in the board exams 2020-21 only.
“The schools have also been directed to follow the alternative academic calendar prepared by NCERT for transacting the curriculum. Therefore, each of the topics that have been wrongly portrayed as deleted have been covered under alternative academic calender which is already in force for all the affiliated schools of the board,” Tripathi said.
Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said the CBSE should explain the rationale behind dropping certain chapters from the school curriculum.
“Social science is one discipline where there is maximum scope of controversy and I agree that no matter which topics are chosen or left out, the questions are bound to be raised. Hence the board should have been careful and explain its rationale for dropping certain topics,” the AAP leader said.
NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase said the saffron party might even “rewrite history” in future.
BSP leader Kunwar Danish Ali took a dig at the Human Resource Development Ministry saying it wants education based on ‘WhatsApp university’ forwards.
The HRD Ministry had announced in May that the syllabus will be reduced for the next academic session to reduce burden on students due to learning disruption caused by closure of schools because of COVID-19.
Concerns over course load were raised by parents, who put out online petitions on the issue.
The HRD Ministry maintained that the curriculum has been rationalised while retaining core elements.
“As great a tool as online education is, it comes with certain limitations, and I believe that the reduction of syllabus is a fair move as many students who live in rural, underprivileged areas, were deprived of education because they did not have access to gadgets, power supply, and sufficient bandwidth – which are the prerequisites of online education,” said Alka Kapoor, Principal, Modern Public School, Shalimar Bagh.
Reduction of syllabus makes sense in that regard, she said.
A representative of DAV Public School, Gurgaon, said,”Rationalisation of syllabus is a welcome move”.
“The board has not barred us from teaching the dropped chapters it is just that students won’t be evaluated for those chapters. Classroom teaching cannot completely be taken over by alternative methods, reduction in syllabus was very much needed,” the representative said.
The students appearing in the CBSE board exams next year will not be required to study about secularism, citizenship, nationalism, demonetisation and democratic rights as the chapters dealing with these subjects, along with several other chapters, have been dropped from the syllabus to reduce the course load for students amid the coronavirus crisis.
The revised Physics syllabus for Class 11 omitted portions from Newton’s Laws of Motion, Kepler’s law of planetary motion and the Doppler effect in waves, while chapters on anatomy and morphology of flowering plants have been dropped from the Biology syllabus.
Other significant omissions from class 12 science syllabus include Kepler’s Law of planetary motion and radioactivity including alpha, beta and gamma particle rays and their properties.
Teachers have expressed concern that the reduction in science syllabus will not only affect the students’ understanding of key concepts but also impact them when they attempt entrance exams such as the Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) for engineering colleges and National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) for medical colleges.
For Class XII, chapters on India’s relations with neighbours, demonetisation, changing nature of economic growth & social movements in India have been dropped
An idea of how this is being achieved is clear from the changed complexion of academic and cultural institutions and various committees and bodies since the BJP government took charge, and from the visible shift in priorities of these institutions with the new people at their helm. The changes have been carried out predictably in the name of nationalist goals, weeding out of corruption and restoring ‘balance’ in bodies presumably ‘dominated’ by ‘leftists’ in the past.
The 20, 000 Vidya Bharti schools and shishu mandirs– where inculcation of hatred against the minorities is a matter of declared policy, and textbooks defiantly poison young minds, daring the state to censor them if it could– today receive not merely approval but state patronage, and their network has significantly expanded in spread since the BJP formed the government at the Centre.
There is a need to make this assertion strongly today, and to reverse the policies of the BJP government in education. With media input
(www.siyasat.net.is Ahmedabad, Gujarat,India based website)
