‘SHOCKED’ about reduced CBSE syllabus: Mamata Banerjee
Central Board of Secondary Education announced on the 7th of July that it will take the necessary steps to reduce student’s workload. To this Mr. Ramesh Pokhriyal, Education Minister said that 30% of the CBSE syllabus will be rationalized by retaining the core concepts. The government further said this syllabus reduction will be applicable for the entire academic year of 2020-2021.
Looking at the extraordinary situation prevailing in the country and the world, #CBSE was advised to revise the curriculum and reduce course load for the students of Class 9th to 12th. @PMOIndia @HMOIndia @PIB_India @MIB_India @DDNewslive @cbseindia29 @mygovindia
— Dr. Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank (@DrRPNishank) July 7, 2020
📢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
According to the “core concepts”, valuable concepts like the following do not include.
- food security, democratic rights in class 9th
- democracy & diversity, and caste, religion & gender in class 10th
- federalism and secularism in class 11th
- social movements, and environment & natural resources in class 12th
Mamata Banerjee, the Chief Minister of West Bengal expressed how shocked she is to acknowledge the fact that the centre has decided to drop the important topics from the syllabus of classes IXth- XIIth in CBSE affiliated schools.
Shocked to know that the Central Govt has dropped topics like Citizenship, Federalism, Secularism & Partition in the name of reducing CBSE course during #COVIDCrisis.
We strongly object to this & appeal @HRDMinistry, GoI to ensure these vital lessons aren't curtailed at any cost. https://t.co/pkBaVI4VKM— Mamata Banerjee (@MamataOfficial) July 8, 2020
The CM strongly objected to the move which was announced by the education ministry on reducing the syllabus due to the ongoing extraordinary situation of coronavirus. She said, “We strongly object to this and appeal to the HRD Ministry, Government of India, to ensure these vital lessons aren’t curtailed at any cost.”
This is not the first time that Ms. Banerjee stood on the other side of the Centre’s decision. Over the past few months, the central government and Mamata have repeatedly clashed where she has alleged about the suffocating of democracy in West Bengal and threatening the spirit of federalism.
In May, the centre tried to trample co-operative federalism by not providing help to those states whose economies had been worst hit by the COVID-19 lockdown, said Ms. Mamata Banerjee.
A similar attack was made by her in April where she was hitting out the dispatch of Interminister teams (IMCT) to report on her handling of coronavirus crisis. Banerjee said, “this might not be consistent with the spirit of federalism.”
As a response to this, Mamata was attacked by JP Nadda, the President of Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) as he said ” The West Bengal Chief Minister does not believe in cooperative federalism. She is not keen on sharing COVID-19 data with the centre.”
The fact is that non-acceptance of the government’s decision to exclude the important concepts from the CBSE affiliated school’s syllabus of classes IXth-XIIth is not just supported by the Bengal Chief Minister but also by the Congress leader Shahi Tharoor.
1/3 I was going to congratulate @DrRPNishank on reducing the CBSE students' course-load, till i saw what they're deleting: https://t.co/DQKboUeJ6k
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 8, 2020
So children of Std.X will no longer learn about 'democracy &diversity', 'gender, religion &caste', 'popular struggles& movements'…
3/3 One has to doubt the motives of those who selected the topics to drop. Have they decided democracy, diversity, secularism&the like are more dispensable concepts for tomorrow's Indian citizens? I urge the Govt to rationalise the curriculum rather than strip it of civic values.
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) July 8, 2020
Mr. Tharoor’s tweeter posts question the government’s decision of syllabus reduction by putting up a vital point in the limelight that these young students are the future voters and how what kind of a voter will they turn out without learning the basic and vital concepts of democracy??
Mr. Jairam Ramesh, one of the party colleagues of Shahi Tharoor wrote in support of the non-acceptance by taunting the government, “What else to expect from a regime headed by someone claiming to have a degree in ‘entire political science’?”
It is crystal clear that the opposition parties and their leaders are not in support of the decision taken by the CBSE of reducing the syllabus. The implementation of this decision will push back the students from climbing the vital concepts of their education. Now the question is that what can be the other alternative to deal with the situation???
