Dear CBSE, Can India’s Youth Really Do Without Lessons on Democracy, Secularism, Caste?

After disrupting everything from classes being held to exam schedules, the next sphere of education to be impacted by Covid-19 is school syllabuses. Following directions from the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the syllabi for students in Classes 9 to 12 have been cut by 30 per cent. The Central Board of Secondary Education announced its revised syllabus on Tuesday. The changes will affect students in the academic year of 2020-21.

The CBSE has “completely deleted” chapters on federalism, citizenship, nationalism, and secularism from the political science curriculum of Class 11 in a bid to rationalise syllabushttps://t.co/PSuXLEBJ2A

— The Indian Express (@IndianExpress) July 7, 2020

The CBSE issued a statement on the matter, citing the coronavirus pandemic as the reason for the reduced syllabus. The statement said, “The revision of syllabi is a measure taken due to the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and in different parts of the world. Considering the importance of achieving the level of learning, the syllabus has been rationalised to the extent possible by retaining the core concepts.” Union HRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal made a similar announcement on Twitter.

📢Considering the importance of learning achievement, it has been decided to rationalize syllabus up to 30% by retaining the core concepts.@PMOIndia @HMOIndia @HRDMinistry @mygovindia @transformIndia @cbseindia29 @mygovindia

— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 7, 2020

The reduced syllabus in the subject of political science, which falls under Social Sciences, is somewhat controversial. It leaves out several important chapters and topics that are important in developing politically aware students. For Class 10, the “Democracy and Diversity”, “Gender, Religion and Caste”, “Popular Struggles and Movements”, and “Challenges to Democracy” chapters are no longer included. Class 11 students will no longer study the chapters “Citizenship”, “Secularism”, and the topics covering growth of local governments. The Class 12 syllabus has excluded the chapters “Environment and Natural Resources” and “India’s Relations with Its Neighbours”.

Like the Britishers don't teach their kids about East India company and their looting of world resources. https://t.co/dY9kbPLhc7

— أمينة Amina (@AminaaKausar) July 8, 2020

The exclusion of these chapters has attracted criticism on social media. However, in its statement, Central Board of Secondary Education said, “The Heads of Schools and Teachers may ensure that the topics that have been reduced are also explained to the students to the extent required to connect different topics.” Regardless, students will no longer have to study these sections for their examinations.

The @cbseindia29 board assured students in reduction of syllabus by 30%. Chapters that deal with the very pillars on which India stands have been removed, hereby destroying India's foundation. The CBSE wants to alter history based on WhatsApp forwards.https://t.co/ECGVXCCyTx

— NSUI (@nsui) July 8, 2020

CBSE’s announcement follows the lead of its fellow central board, Council for the Indian School Certificate Examinations (CISCE). Last week, CISCE announced a 25 per cent cut in its syllabus across all subjects.

JUST IN: CISCE reduces syllabus for ICSE & ISC Board exams next year by 25%. Syllabus cut announced to make up for the learning disruption caused by #COVID19 outbreak. @IndianExpress pic.twitter.com/doyVG0dQZD

— Ritika Chopra (@KhurafatiChopra) July 3, 2020

Sending out well-informed young people into the world should be a school’s ultimate purpose, above merely bestowing students with a degree. Omitting essential topics at such a high level of schooling seems to cater to the latter.