The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced a reduction in the curriculum for the year 2020-2021 for Classes IX to XII.
The reductions and deletions suggested by the CBSE violates the cohesiveness and holistic nature of the planned curriculum.
What is the decision taken?
The CBSE syllabus for classes 9 to 12 has been reduced by 30%.
However, core concepts is said to be retained.
The CBSE circular says that the move has been finalised by the respective Course Committees.
The Curriculum Committee and Governing Body of the Board have approved the same.
The CBSE circular instructs the Heads of Schools and Teachers to ensure that the topics that have been reduced are also explained.
But this is only to the extent required to connect different topics that are retained.
However, the reduced syllabus will not be part of the topics for internal assessment and year-end board exams.
The move comes in view of the reduced number of class hours available in 2020-2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
What are the key deleted portions?
For Class 11 students of political science, 'federalism in the Constitution' is removed.
Political theory sections on citizenship, secularism and nationalism have also been removed.
The core English course will not include exercises to write a letter to the editor, or apply for a job with a resume.
In Class 12, the topic of India's relations with its neighbours has been deleted.
Also, sections on social movements, regional aspirations, the changing nature of India's economic development, and the Planning Commission have been removed.
Business Studies students will not study the concepts of demonetization, and GST.
The impact of government policy changes on business with special reference to liberalization, privatization and globalization in India has also been removed.
In History classes, students will not study chapters on understanding partition, or on peasants, zamindars and the State.
For Class 10 students, the social science chapter on forests and wildlife in contemporary India has been deleted.
Also, chapters on democracy and diversity; gender, religion and caste; popular struggles and movements; and, challenges to democracy are deleted.
In science, the chapter on the functioning of the human eye has been removed, along with a section on the basic concepts of evolution.
A number of practical experiments have been removed.
These will be harder to conduct when students are able to spend limited time in the laboratory.
What are the contentious aspects?
Basic Science - In basic science topics, it is much better to retain the fundamentals.
If need be, the advanced topics or the higher application levels could be removed.
But the steps taken by the CBSE are in the opposite direction.
For instance, in physics, many basic topics such as Newton’s laws, motion along a straight line and basic concepts of heat are removed.
But more advanced topics corresponding to these have been retained, such as -
the topics on work, power and energy, which uses the concepts of Newton’s laws
motion in a plane, which expands on linear motion
kinetic theory of gases, which builds on heat
So, teachers will have to teach the deleted portions anyway, in order to build the next level of concepts.
So, the deletions remain only nominal, and thus add an invisible burden on teachers.
Ecology and evolution - In biology syllabus, higher-level topics such as ecology, environmental science and evolution have been arbitrarily removed.
Topics like these, notably, connect the student to real-life situations.
Importantly, it is ironic that such topics are removed at the time of the pandemic.
The pandemic has highlighted the consequences of the neglect of evolution and ecology in school and higher education in India.
Understanding practically every aspect of a zoonotic pandemic requires a thorough grounding in diverse areas of ecology and evolution.
These include ideas like species interactions, population dynamics, co-evolutionary dynamics, evolution of host range expansions, and the transmission dynamics of pathogens.
A direct consequence of neglect of ecology and evolution is the relative scarcity of epidemiologists in India.
What is to be done?
It is fair to take into account the views of all stakeholders in the area of education and do a careful job of trimming the syllabus.
Another option to consider would be to better allow the students a gap year to pursue their own interests.
