CBSE drops chapters on secularism, democratic rights from syllabus

In the wake of COVID pandemic, the CBSE revised its syllabus for classes 9 to 12 where topics like secularism, citizenship, nationalism, demonetisation and democratic rights as the chapters dealing with these subjects, along with several other chapters, have been dropped from the syllabus to reduce the course load for students .

The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) notified the new syllabus on Wednesday (July 8) for the 2020-21 academic session after rationalising up to 30 per cent of the curriculum.

According to the updated curriculum, the chapters deleted from the Class 10 syllabus are those dealing with democracy and diversity, gender, religion and caste, popular struggles and movement and challenges to democracy.

For Class 11, the deleted portions include the chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, secularism and growth of local governments in India.

Similarly, Class 12 students will not be required to study the chapters on India’s relations with its neighbours – Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal, the changing nature of India’s economic development, social movements in India and demonetisation, among others.

According to Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry officials, the syllabus has been rationalised to reduce the burden on students but the core concepts have been retained.

“Heads of schools and teachers have been advised by the board to ensure that the topics that have been reduced are explained to the students to the extent required. However, the reduced syllabus will not be part of the topics for the internal assessment and the year-end board examination,” a senior CBSE official said.

Reacting to the news, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee 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 arent curtailed at any cost,” Banerjee said in a tweet.

Universities and schools across the country have been closed since March 16, when the Centre announced a nationwide classroom shutdown as one of the measures to contain the COVID-19 outbreak.

A nationwide lockdown was announced on March 24, which came into effect the next day. While the government has eased several restrictions, the schools and colleges continue to remain closed.