‘Shocked at CBSE’S move to drop topics like citizenship, federalism in new syllabus’

KOLKATA: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took umbrage on Wednesday over the CBSE’S decision to drop topics such as “citizenship”, “federalism” and “partition” in an effort to rationalise its curriculum amid the COVID-19 crisis.

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.

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has rationalised the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 for the 2020-21 session by up to 30 per cent to make up for the academic loss caused due to the pandemic. Education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal said: “It has been decided to rationalise syllabus up to 30 per cent by retaining the core concepts”.

“Core concepts”, it transpired, did not include “secularism” and “federalism” for Class 11; “environment and natural resources” and “social movements” for Class 12 and “democracy and diversity” and “caste, religion and gender” for Class 10.

Class 9 students will not be taught from chapters on “democratic rights” and one on “food security” has been deleted as well.

Echoing similar thoughts, Congress leader Shashi Tharoor tweeted: “One has to doubt the motives of those who selected the topics to drop. Have they decided democracy, diversity, secularism and the like are more dispensable concepts for tomorrow’s Indian citizens?” Another Congress leader, Jairam Ramesh, wrote: “What else to expect from a regime headed by someone claiming to have a degree in ‘entire political science’?”