'Leave Politics Out Of Education' Says Ramesh Pokhriyal After Questions Raised Over CBSE Syllabus Cut

In a series of tweets, the education minister Ramesh Pokhriyal has clarified the recent syllabus cut by CBSE and said that uninformed commentary is trying to create a false narrative.

Union Human Resource Development Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank on Sunday said those who will try to denigrate good institutions like Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU) and Jamia Millia Islamia will not be tolerated.

New Delhi: After questions were raised over the topics cut from the school syllabus by the CBSE, the Union Minister for Human Resource Development, Ramesh Pokhriyal has appealed to ‘leave politics out of education’. In a series of tweets, Pokhriyal has said that ‘there has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the exclusion of some topics from CBSE syllabus’ He said that the comments are resorting to sensationalism and trying to portray a false narrative even though many topics have been cut from across different subjects. ‘While it is easy to misconstrue exclusion of 3-4 topics like nationalism, local government, federalism, etc. and build a concocted narrative, a wider perusal of different subjects will show that this exclusion is happening across subjects,’ he said in a tweet.

There has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the exclusion of some topics from #CBSESyllabus. The problem with these comments is that they resort to sensationalism by connecting topics selectively to portray a false narrative.

— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 9, 2020

The Minister highlighted that it is a one time measure and the aim of syllabus reduction was to ease the stress on students. He also said that the step was taken after consultation with various experts and considering the educationists. The CBSE had decided to cut down 30 percent of the 2020-2021 academic session syllabus to make it easier on students and teachers as cases of coronavirus continues to rise in the country. But some of the topics which were cut by the Board raised questions about the decision. For example, in the updated curriculum for the Class 10 syllabus, the chapters deleted include Democracy and Diversity, Gender, Religion and Caste, popular struggles and movement, and challenges to democracy. For Class 11, the deleted portions include the chapters on Federalism, Citizenship, Nationalism, Secularism, and Growth of local governments in India. Environmental Chemistry has been removed from Chemistry. Similarly, Class 12 students will not be required to study the chapters on India's relations with its neighbours -- Pakistan, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, and Nepal, the changing nature of India's economic development, social movements in India. CBSE has removed Demonetisation from Class 12 Business Studies books as well. In a report by PTI, the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry officials said that the syllabus has been rationalised to reduce the burden on students, but the core concepts have been retained.