COVID 19 has made the opening educational institutions for in person classes looks highly unlikely at this point. In wake of this situation CBSE decided to reduce the syllabus. In this process of reduction it has pulled out a few very important chapters from its curriculum. While CBSE’s decision to reduce the syllabus to the extent of 30%, is welcome, but one fails to understand the very purpose of education when students will not learn anything about secularism, partition, citizenship among other subjects. The concepts of secularism, federalism, are very important, enshrined in our constitution, as basic tenets, and the decision to withdraw is too biased to accept, the motive behind this, is questionable. The board’s justification that it was meant to reduce the exam stress of the students due to the prevailing health emergency, situation and prevent learning gaps begs the question as to why these topics needed to be learned. A learning center must give scope to study all aspects. In fact, without proper study/ examination, the Government should always try to avoid meddling. A neutral approach will pave the way for free thoughts to thrive afresh.

CBSE As such not made a clear rationale behind dropping some subjects as ” dispensable” while retaining others as “indispensable.“ There is a strong case for every student to have exposure to India’s composite culture—its heterogeneity, diversity, and pluralism. It helps in the cultivation of tolerance as a virtue.

Are the curricula only meant to pass the examinations? For the students, textbooks are just an assemblage of facts that need to be understood or even memorised sometimes. Our pedagogical systems are disconnected from lived realities. It may be at the behest of political influence those chapters were taken out of the syllabus with a preconceived mind. Excessive involvement of the government in matters of schooling and pedagogy leads to fanaticism. The historical framework of anything which shaped the country to this position should find a place in learning material. Its time to evolve teaching methods that encourage students to apply facts to real-life problems while encouraging them to seek knowledge. The sad reality is that secularism and federalism are not practiced anymore. Nonetheless, it’s some consolation that the “banishment” of key components of what we all cherished as “liberal” education is “temporary “, only one-time measure and the expunged contents have not yet been replaced by new content propagating a constricted vision of India and the world.