The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has recently made significant changes to the school textbooks, specifically in the subjects of biology and chemistry. As part of a rationalisation process, chapters on ‘Heredity and Evolution’ in biology and periodic classification of elements in chemistry have been removed from class 10 textbooks.
Further, newly-published textbooks by the NCERT have unveiled additional reductions. These include the elimination of a chapter on the periodic table and various topics related to pollution and climate for younger students. Moreover, subjects such as biology, chemistry, geography, mathematics, and physics for older students have also been impacted by these changes.
The study of the periodic table will be limited to students who choose to pursue chemistry during their last two years of education, before entering university. However, students still have the opportunity to learn about these subjects if they decide to opt for the relevant subject in classes 11 and 12.
The deletion from the class 10 textbooks was made by the NCERT in June 2022, saying, “In view of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to reduce content load on students.”
As per data by the Unified District Information System For Education Plus in its 2021-2021 report, there are over 24,000 CBSE schools in India (affiliated at Secondary level). CBSE schools follow the NCERT curriculum
Among other deletions, made last year, from the class 10 science textbook are passages on ‘evolution.’ The new textbooks with deletions and changes made last year have now hit the market.
According to a document put out by the NCERT detailing a list of ‘rationalised content’ in textbooks for class 10, chapter nine of the class’s textbook, previously titled ‘Heredity and Evolution,’ has now been replaced by a revised chapter simply called ‘Heredity.’
‘Travesty of education’
Various educators, academic professionals and biologists have raised concerns over NCERT permanently deleting these topics from the textbooks.
Renowned biologist and writer Richard Dawkins recently took to Twitter to share a news article. In his tweet, he said, "Modi’s BJP is a tragic affront to India’s secular beginnings. Hinduism is at least as ridiculous as Islam. Between them, these two idiotic religions have betrayed the ideals of Nehru and Gandhi."
A class 10 science teacher from a CBSE school based out of Jhansi, Uttar Pradesh, told CNBC-TV18 that although there is a need to remove extra content, removing the basic chapters is a matter of concern.
Meanwhile, in April more than 1,800 scientists, science teachers, and educators, including experts from prestigious institutions like Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR), Indian Institute of Science Education and Research (IISER), and IITs, signed a letter expressing concern on deletion of the chapter.
“Knowledge and understanding of evolutionary biology is important not just to any sub-field of biology, but is also key to understanding the world around us. Evolutionary biology is an area of science with a huge impact on how we choose to deal with an array of problems we face as societies and nations from medicine and drug discovery, epidemiology, ecology and environment, to psychology, and it also addresses our understanding of humans and their place in the tapestry of life. Although many of us do not explicitly realise, the principles of natural selection help us understand how any pandemic progresses or why certain species go extinct, among many other critical issues,” stated the letter.
Additionally, in a statement released in April, Union Minister of State for Education Subhas Sarkar said, “Claims that Darwin's theory has been dropped from NCERT curriculum are misleading. When rationalisation of courses was being done due to COVID to reduce the burden on students, there was no Darwin's theory up to class 10. If a child wants to study, Darwin’s theory is available on all website. In class 12, there is already Darwin’s theory in the syllabus so there should not be such false propaganda,"
What are some of the other changes?
The document put out by the NCERT detailing a list of ‘rationalised content’ in textbooks for class 10 also mentions various other topics being omitted. These changes include omission of a full chapter on ‘Democracy and Diversity’ from the Democratic Politics-II book.
"The changes in the social science syllabus are glaring. As per the document you are removing the Democracy and Diversity chapter, Popular Struggles and Movements chapter, Challenges to Democracy chapter. How are students expected to learn the fundamentals of democracy if this happens," said Anisha Banerjee, a social science teacher based out of Hyderabad.
A key deletion also includes Euclid’s division lemma and vector algebra from mathematics. Additionally, in science book, parts of Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction and periodic classification of elements have been dropped. Faraday’s law of electromagnetic induction forms the basis of the working of an electric motor.
A principal from a CBSE school based out of Hyderabad told CNBC-TV18 that the management is worried that students won’t score as much as they did before if this syllabus is taught.
