Nationalism & Secularism Go Out Of Reduced CBSE Syllabi

New Delhi: The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has announced slashing the syllabi for Classes IX to XII by one-third to reduce the burden on students amid the coronavirus crisis.

While many have welcomed the CBSE’s decision, others have pointed out that several key chapters like Democratic Rights, Food Security, Citizenship, Nationalism and Secularism have been scrapped from the revised syllabi. This could affect the current batch’s preparation for competitive exams, the critics said.

Here are some of the important chapters scrapped from the Economics and Political Science courses for this academic year.

Class IX

The chapters on ‘Democratic Rights’ and ‘Structure of the Indian Constitution’ were removed from the Class IX Political Science syllabus. A chapter on ‘Food Security in India’ has been completely removed from the Economics syllabus.

Class X

The chapters on ‘Democracy and Diversity’, ‘Caste, Religion and Gender’ and ‘Challenges to Democracy’ were removed.

Class XI

The chapters on ‘Federalism’, ‘Citizenship’, ‘Nationalism’ and ‘Secularism’ were completely deleted from the Class XI Political Science syllabus.

Two units from the ‘Local Government’ chapter — ‘Why do We Need Local Governments’ and ‘Growth of Local Government in India’ — were removed.

Class XII

From the Class XII Political Science syllabus, CBSE has entirely removed ‘Security in the Contemporary World’, ‘Environment and Natural Resources’, ‘Social and New Social Movements in India’ and ‘Regional Aspirations’.

From the ‘Planned Development’ chapter, units dealing with ‘Changing Nature of India’s Economic Development’ and ‘Planning Commission and Five Year Plans’ were removed.

‘India’s Relations with its Neighbours: Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar’ was deleted for the present session from the chapter on ‘India’s Foreign Policy’.

Notably, the decision to reduce the syllabi was taken after Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ asked the CBSE to “revise” the curriculum keeping in view “extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and the world”.

Also Read: CBSE Trims Class IX-XII Syllabus By 30% Amid COVID-19