‘False narrative being created,’ says HRD minister on row over scrapping chapters from CBSE syllabus
Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank referred to the CBSE statement, which said the lessons were being removed only for this year.
Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Thursday claimed a “false narrative” was being created about the Central Board of Secondary Education’s decision to drop topics such as federalism, citizenship, nationalism, and secularism from the political science curriculum of Class 11 for the academic year 2020-’21. A controversy had erupted over the board’s decision to remove these chapters on Tuesday.
The syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 has been reduced by 30% this year due to the disruption caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
“There has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the exclusion of some topics from CBSE syllabus,” Nishank tweeted. “The problem with these comments is that they resort to sensationalism by connecting topics selectively to portray a false narrative.”
He also referred to the CBSE statement, which had emphasised that this was a one-time measure only for this year. It had added that schools have been directed to follow the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s alternative academic calendar while teaching the curriculum. Deleted sections of the syllabus have been covered under this, the board said.
“While it is easy to misconstrue exclusion of three to four topics like nationalism, local government, federalism, etc and build a concocted narrative, a wider perusal of different subjects will show that this exclusion is happening across subjects,” the HRD minister said in a series of tweets.
He pointed out that topics have also been revised in other subjects such as physics, economics, maths and biology.
As @cbseindia29 has clarified, schools have been advised to
— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 9, 2020
follow the #NCERT Alternate Academic Calendar, and all the topics mentioned have been covered under the same Academic Calendar. The exclusions are merely a 1-time measure for exams, due to the #COVID19 pandemic.
The minister said the only objective of the 30% syllabus rationalisation was to reduce the stress on the students. “This exercise has been carried out following the advice and recommendations of various experts and considering the suggestions received from educationists through our #SyllabusForStudents2020 campaign,” he added.
Nishank urged people to leave politics out of education and instead make politics more educated.
Last month, Nishank had asked for suggestions for syllabus rationalisation from educationists. More than 1,500 suggestions were received. Final changes made in the syllabi have been finalised by the respective course committees of the CBSE, with the approval of the curriculum committee and the governing body of the board.
Schools and colleges in India were closed about a week before the imposition of the countrywide lockdown on March 25. While some educational institutions in India have switched to online classes amid a surge in coronavirus cases, all of them will remain closed till at least July 31.