Leave Politics Out of Education: HRD Minister on Reduced CBSE Syllabus

Union HRD minister Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank has issued a series of tweets regarding the reduced CBSE syllabus. The minister has requested the people of the country to not “misconstrue” the exclusion of topics like nationalism, local government, federalism, and so on, and build a “concocted narrative”. “A wider perusal of different subjects will show that this exclusion is happening across subjects,” said Dr Ramesh Pokhriyal Nishank.

“There has been a lot of uninformed commentary on the exclusion of some topics from CBSE Syllabus. The problem with these comments is that they resort to sensationalism by connecting topics selectively to portray a false narrative,” said the minister on certain media reports.

The minister also clarified that the exclusions are merely a one time measure for exams, due to the COVID-19 pandemic. “The only aim is to relax the stress on students by reducing the syllabus by 30%. This exercise has been carried out following the advice and recommendations of various experts and considering the suggestions received from educationists through our #SyllabusForStudents2020 campaign,” added the HRD minister.

He also gave examples of a few other exclusions, which are part of the reduced CBSE syllabus such as:

1. The topics excluded in economics are measures of dispersion, balance of payments deficit, and so on.
2. Topics excluded in physics are heat engine and refrigerator, heat transfer, convection and radiation among others.
3. Some of the excluded topics in mathematics are properties of determinants, consistency, inconsistency, and number of solutions of system of linear equations by examples and binomial probability distribution.
4. In biology, portions of mineral nutrition, digestion and absorption have been excluded.

“It is our humble request: education is our sacred duty towards our children. Let us leave politics out of education and make our politics more educated,” said the minister in conclusion.