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The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) on Tuesday had notified that it rationalized by up to 30 percent 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 rationalized while retaining core elements.
The board in its syllabus rationalization exercise has dropped chapters on democracy and diversity, demonetization, nationalism, secularism, India’s relations with its neighbors, and growth of local governments in India, among others, as per the updated syllabus.
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Social science is one discipline where there is a “maximum scope of controversy and agrees 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 that are dropped are so relevant in a contemporary context that it is important that children learn about it through “authentic source rather than through ‘Whatsapp University'”, the deputy chief minister said.