Student Struggle Editorial Team
Yesterday, on 9 June, CPI (M) Member of Parliament Elamaram Kareem wrote to MHRD Minister Ramesh Pokhriyal against the cancelling of crucial chapters from NCERT syllabi of school students from class IX to XII. In the letter, Kareem asks Pokhriyal how a generation without the knowledge of democracy, secularism and the like be able to lead the nation in the future.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), on 8 June, slashed chapters on secularism, democratic rights, gender, religion, caste, and food security from the school syllabi of students from class IX to XII. The issue turned into a controversy when students, teachers and other members of the civil society of the country came forward to speak against it on social media and elsewhere. Following this, the CBSE responded that it was a “one-time measure” to reduce exam stress and that these chapters will be covered in an “Alternative Academic Calendar of NCERT”.
However, people and members of progressive organisations have accused the government and the CBSE of carrying out its devious agenda to “saffronise” education at a time precisely when the country is going through a crisis. Many academicians have stated that the decision appears “ideologically driven”. CPI (M)’s Sitaram Yechury has termed it “atrocious” and “unacceptable”. The Students’ Federation of India (SFI) has condemned the move and called it “crooked” and a way to “use the challenges” posed by the pandemic and the lockdown.
MP Kareem, in his letter, has asked MHRD’s Pokhriyal for the restoration of all those chapters onto the textbooks. We republish it below.
Read the Students’ Federation of India (SFI)’s official statement on the issue here.
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