Oppn attack on CBSE uninformed, says minister
NEW DELHI: Union human resource development (HRD) minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ on Thursday rejected criticism over the Central Board of School Education (CBSE)’s move to drop chapters on subjects such as secularism as “uninformed commentary” to portray “a false narrative”. He emphasised the move as part of syllabus rationalisation in view of the Covid-19 pandemic was a one-time measure.
Nishank’s comments came as the opposition leaders alleged the chapters on India’s plurality have been dropped in line with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s ideology.
“There has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the exclusion of some topics from the CBSE syllabus. The problem with these comments is that they resort to sensationalism by connecting topics selectively to portray a false narrative,” he tweeted. “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.”
He cited CBSE’s clarification and added schools have been advised to follow the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT)’s Alternate Academic Calendar, which covers all the topics. Nishank added the only aim is to relax the stress on students by reducing the syllabus by 30%. He said the exercise has been carried out following the advice of experts and educationists.
Nishank appealed against politicisation of education. “It is our humble request. Education is our sacred duty towards our children. Let us leave politics out of education and make our politics more educated.”
Nishank said the exclusions are not just limited to specific subjects as is being portrayed. “In Biology, portions of mineral nutrition, digestion, and absorption have been excluded. It can be no one’s argument that these topics have also being excluded by malice or some grand design which only partisan minds can decipher.”
CBSE announced on Monday that it has rationalised the syllabus for classes 9 to 12 for the 2020-21 session to make up for the academic loss.
West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee was among the opposition leaders, who opposed CBSE’s move. She said she was shocked to learn that topics like secularism have been dropped and urged the HRD ministry not to curtail them at any cost.