The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) should explain the rationale behind dropping certain chapters
from the school curriculum, Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia
said on Wednesday, asserting that the board must have had 'very strong'
reasons behind the move.
The CBSE on Tuesday had notified that it rationalised by up to 30 per cent
the syllabus for classes 9 to 12 for the academic year 2020-21 to
reduce course load on students amid the COVID-19 crisis.
The Human
Resource Development Ministry maintains that the curriculum has been
rationalised while retaining core elements.
The board in its
syllabus rationalisation exercise has dropped chapters on democracy and
diversity, demonetisation, nationalism, secularism, India's relations
with its neighbours and growth of local governments in India, among
others, as per the updated syllabus.
"The Delhi government has always
been a votary of syllabus reduction and I have said so on several
occasions as a large syllabus does not mean more learning.
"I support the
CBSE's decision to reduce the syllabus for the academic session 2020-21
in the secondary and senior secondary grades but I have reservations
and concerns over the manner and content of the syllabus reduction
exercise," Sisodia said.
Social science is one discipline where there
is 'maximum slope of controversy and agree that no matter which topics
are chosen or left out, the questions are bound to be raised. Hence the
board should have been careful and explain its rationale for dropping
certain topics', he said.
"I am hopeful that the CBSE must have very
good reasons for dropping those topics other than saying that 'reduction
in classroom teaching due to closure of schools' requires reduction and
hence, randomly some topics have been dropped," Sisodia, who holds the
education portfolio, said.
The topics of social science which are
dropped are so relevant in contemporary context that it is important
that children learn about it through 'authentic source rather than
through 'Whatsapp University'', the deputy chief minister said. -- PTI