NCERT drops chapters on democracy & periodic table from Class 10th textbooks

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has made a decision to omit the chapter on the periodic table from Class 10 Science textbooks as part of its “rationalization” exercise. 

Additionally, chapters including Democracy and Diversity, Popular Struggles and Movements, Political Parties, and Challenges to Democracy have been eliminated from the Political Science textbooks. 

These steps by NCERT follow a period of syllabus rationalization during the pandemic when these chapters were temporarily removed from the curriculum. However, NCERT has now decided to make these deletions permanent.

The decision to remove these vital topics from the syllabus has raised concerns among scientists and teachers who fear the long-term consequences. Although the specific reasoning behind this move has not been explicitly stated, it is believed to be part of the ongoing syllabus rationalization process initiated by NCERT. 

As part of an effort to reduce the “burden on students,” complete chapters on specific topics have been removed through a process of rationalization. The decision has been met with criticism, especially after the theory of evolution was dropped from the Class 10 science textbook.

 The Covid-19 pandemic disrupted the education sector, prompting NCERT to undertake a syllabus rationalization exercise between December 2021 and June 2022. The objective was to lighten the burden for students and facilitate a smoother transition to remote learning.

During this exercise, approximately 30% of the syllabus was eliminated for Classes 6 to 12. Certain topics, including those related to the periodic table and Darwin’s theory, were temporarily excluded to streamline the curriculum during these challenging times. However, the permanent removal of these scientific topics has raised serious concerns among scientists, teachers, and parents.