Secularism, Caste Under Axed Topics as CBSE Reduces Syllabus

CBSE has scrapped four chapters from Political Science curriculum of Class 11, including citizenship and secularism.

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Seeking to ‘rationalise’ the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has completely deleted sections on Citizenship, Nationalism, Secularism, Understanding Partition & Democratic Rights across multiple subjects, reveals an analysis of documents uploaded on the board’s website.

Among five chapters scrapped from Social Science in Class 9 is Democratic Rights, which the board says has been completely deleted.

Further, chapters on Democracy and Diversity, Gender, Religion and Caste, Popular Struggles and Movements, and Forest and Wildlife have come under the axe for the same subject in Class 10.

In Class 11, chapters on Peasants, Zamindars and the State, Understanding Partition and sections on ‘Revolt in The Countryside - The Bombay Deccan’ and ‘The Deccan Riots Commission’, which are based on farmers’ agitation against moneylenders, have been removed.

Topics like Federalism, the need for Local Governments, Growth of Local Government in India, which fall under a section titled Indian Constitution at Work, have been removed from the subject of Political Science in Class 11.

Also among causalities in the same subject are topics like Citizenship, Nationalism and Secularism.

In the subject of Sociology, chapters on Social Structure, Stratification and Social Processes, and Environment and Society have been scrapped for Class 11.

CBSE Draws Ire of Twitter Users

CBSE’s decision to remove some of the above-mentioned topics drew criticism from Twitter users, who called the move strange, shameful and disturbing.

HRD Ministry Had Asked CBSE to Reduce Syllabus

Earlier on Tuesday, the Ministry of Human Resource Development had asked the CBSE to reduce the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 amid the coronavirus outbreak.

Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal, in a tweet, had said, “Considering the importance of learning achievement, it has been decided to rationalise syllabus up to 30% by retaining the core concepts.”

“Looking at the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and the world, #CBSE was advised to revise the curriculum and reduce course load for the students of Class 9th to 12th,” he added.

The announcement came just days after the CBSE issued a notice to its accredited schools on 2 July to provide students who have failed in Class 9 and Class 11 another opportunity to appear for the final exams.