Row after CBSE prunes syllabus, body says one-time measure

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s announcement a day earlier that it has dropped topics like citizenship, secularism, federalism, and

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)’s announcement a day earlier that it has dropped topics like citizenship, secularism, federalism, and partition to rationalise syllabuses to make up for the academic loss due to the Covid-19 pandemic has triggered a political storm with Congress and other opposition parties condemning the move.

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West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee said she was shocked to know that these topics have been dropped in the name of course reduction. “We strongly object to this & appeal @HRDMinistry [Union human resource development ministry], GoI [the government of India] to ensure these vital lessons aren’t curtailed at any cost,” she tweeted.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Manu Singhvi condemned the move saying secularism and federalism are pillars of Indian democracy. “What message are you trying to send?” Singhvi said. He added he was planning to move court.

The Left parties accused the government of using the pandemic as an excuse to “advance” its agenda. “Atrocious. Using the pandemic, Modi government is deleting sections dealing with India’s diversity, plurality, democracy etc that uphold our Constitutional values from the Higher Secondary syllabus,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Sitaram Yechury tweeted.

“All to advance the RSS [Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh] vision of an exclusivist, theocratic, intolerant, fascistic nation. This is nothing but the destruction of our Constitution. Unacceptable.”

The Communist Party of India (CPI) condemned the syllabus reduction and called it a “nefarious attempt to implement the Hindutva agenda of RSS”.

“The CPI strongly objects to the move to remove chapters on human rights, social movements, citizenship rights, etc. The party condemns the move to condition the minds of our youth so that fascist poison can be easily injected into them,” CPI said in a statement.

“Ever since the RSS-BJP government came to power, they have been trying to communalise and commercialise education. The present move is part of their hidden agenda towards that purpose. There is already an attempt to centralise education in the name of New Education Policy.”

The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) said the BJP wants to do away with democracy and secularism. “The BJP’s agenda is very clear. They want to do away with democracy and secularism. Hence the best way is not to teach it to the young. In the days to come, the BJP may even rewrite history in a different way and add it to the syllabus,” said NCP spokesperson Mahesh Tapase.

CBSE secretary Anurag Tripathi issued a clarification, saying the issue had been interpreted “differently” and the syllabus reduction was only a one-time measure due to Covid-19 to reduce stress on students.

“The rationalization of syllabus up to 30% has been undertaken by the board for nearly 190 subjects of class IX to XII for the academic session 2020-21 as a one-time measure only,” he said. Tripathi added the board has clarified that no question should be asked from the syllabus which has been removed.

“Each of the topics that have been wrongly mentioned in the media as deleted has been covered under Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT [National Council of Educational Research and Training] which is already in force for all the affiliated schools,” said Tripathi

But many of the dropped topics have not been included in the calendar put out on NCERT’s website. But they soon may be part of it, as the council revises the calendar, CBSE and HRD officials said.

NCERT website showed a four-week academic calendar. Secularism, nationalism, and citizenship do not feature in it.

A CBSE official, who sought anonymity, said NCERT would come up with another alternative academic calendar for more months and more topics will be included. Another government official said NCERT was expected to soon release an eight-week calendar.

“The NCERT is likely to include them [topics like citizenship, nationalism or secularism] as it expands this calendar. This is purely based on learning outcomes.”