Students appearing for the CBSE board exams from next year will not have to study secularism, nationalism, federalism, demonetisation, GST, citizenship and democratic rights as these chapters, along with others, have been dropped from the syllabus to reduce the students’ course load amid the coronavirus crisis.
The Central Board of Secondary Education notified the new syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 for the 2020-21 academic session on Wednesday after cutting 30 per cent of the curriculum. A CBSE official said the changes in the syllabus were suggested by a committee of NCERT experts and were discussed by the board and subject experts before being made public. It also asked teachers to continue teaching the deleted topics to students if they felt it necessary.
Under the updated curriculum, the chapters deleted from the Class 10 syllabus deal with democracy and diversity, gender, religion and caste, popular struggles and movements and challenges to democracy.
For Class 11, the deleted portions are chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, secularism and growth of local governments in India. Class 12 students will not have to study chapters on India's relations with its neighbours, the changing nature of India's economic development, social movements in India and demonetisation, among others.
While the news brought respite to students preparing for the exams, it set off a meme fest on the social media. Many academics criticised the move, saying it was “ideologically driven” and due to “political considerations”. West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Congress leader Shashi Tharoor thrashed the move, and Ms Banerjee urged the HRD ministry to ensure “these vital lessons aren’t curtailed at any cost”.
Core science subjects were affected too. The revised Class 11 Physics syllabus omits portions from Newton’s Laws of Motion, Kepler’s law of planetary motion and the Doppler effect in waves.
