CBSE Class 10 Academic Session 2019-20: Board's New Decision Tagged 'Unhealthy'

New Delhi/Bhubaneswar: In a major step by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), chapters on democracy and diversity from Class 10 Social Science Syllabus for the current 2019-2020 academic session have been dropped.

As per reports, three chapters from the Democratic Politics Book 1 – ‘Democracy and Diversity’, ‘Popular Struggle and Movements’ and ‘Challenges to Democracy’ will be assessed in the periodic tests but will not be evaluated in the board examination,” CBSE said in a recent notification.

The decision was taken as a part of the curriculum rationalization exercise undertaken by the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry to reduce the burden of the curriculum on the students, the Board said.

Talking about the relevance of these chapters, it can be said that the chapters were indispensable, particularly when India is a democratic country.

Meanwhile, the step by the CBSE has drawn criticism from academicians, teachers and thinkers who said that the decision is wrong and an overstep by the Board.

“Chapters such as ‘popular struggle’ and ‘movements and challenges to democracy’ have their own importance in making of the child understand past struggles. The child’s knowledge of these topics must be holistically evaluated. What is being done is not healthy and will have a harmful long-term effect," reported Hindustan Times quoting Professor Satvinderpal Kaur of the department of education, Panjab University.

"CBSE is taking away the flexibility from the textbooks. The NCERT should be the body that should decide the curriculum. However, CBSE is calling the shots," said former NCERT chairman, Krishna Kumar, as per the reports.

The NCERT had earlier dropped three chapters on democracy, caste struggles and colonialism from Class 9 syllabus last month.