The move of the CBSE to make another 'surgical strike' in the curriculum for classes 9 to 12 need to be understood in the above background. Even though the minister for human resource development strives to interpret that move as a small and temporary one, the truth is the opposite. No sensible citizen would believe the government claim that the reduction of 30 percent portions in the syllabus was to minimize the load on the students. The minister and his parivar, without the slightest hesitation, argue that the action will not affect the core concepts. This kind of false propaganda has become the 'core concept' of BJP rule in every sector. The crisis caused by COVID 19 is being cunningly used by them to impose their agenda one after another. It is true that the loss of working days has to be adjusted in the school curriculum. It doesn't mean that the social content of the curriculum should be undermined.
The government must be aware of the proclaimed concepts of the CBSE curriculum. In its official website the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has published the salient features of the curriculum for classes 11 and 12 for the year 2020-21. Those wanting to interfere in the curriculum should read the following:
"The curriculum strives to provide ample scope for physical, intellectual, and social development of students." Curriculum further attempts to "uphold constitutional values such as socialism, secularism, democracy, republican character, justice, liberty, equality, fraternity, human dignity of individual and unity and integrity of the nation by encouraging value based learning activities." The government owes an explanation to the nation, that while cutting short the curriculum whether they were doing justice to the above said basic features. It cannot be accidental that the major portion of deduction is from social sciences. They are related to basic features of India such as democracy, secularism, national integrity, citizenship etc.
Talking about constitutional values, in practice they target to weaken the same. They forget the essential fact that India is a democracy where the young people enjoy the right to vote at the age of 18. Those who study from class 9 to 12 are in the age group of 14 to 17- the formative stage in the making of a socially and politically conscious citizen. The government wants the young citizens of the country to be unaware of their country’s fundamental structure and national goals. They want to take away from the students their right to know about their past, present and future. In 1988 during the 61st amendment to the Constitution to provide voting right at 18 the Parliament observed that it was an opportunity to give vent to their feelings and help them to become part of the political process. HRD ministry through this move tells the nation about their concept of politically conscious citizen. A quick survey of the exempted parts reveals the ill motivated plans of the BJP government. From the social science textbooks of class 9 they want to exclude portions such as democratic rights, population, food security etc.
In class 10, portions like challenges before democracy, religion and caste, people’s movements etc. will be chopped off. Coming to class 11, lessons like life of ancient society from history text and monopoly from economics textbooks will be cut off. In class 12, political science classes need not teach lessons like relations between India and neighbors, modern social movements, five-year plans, and planning commission etc. It is abundantly clear that the sole purpose of the exercise is to create a generation of Indians clearly cut off from social realities and constitutional values. It stands contrary to the ideas of scientific temper in the field of education. It is arbitrary and unscientific.
The Sankalp Patra, BJP's manifesto for 2019 elections pointed to "a framework of governance which will yield rich dividends over the next generation ". This is nothing but the 'hindutva' version of Hitler's concept of 'catch them young'. Whenever in power, RSS breeds plans for its implementation. COVID or no COVID, the BJP government is duty bound to follow those diktats. Now taking the pretext of COVID 19, garbing it with innocence, they try to unleash one more attack on Indian education. If it goes unchallenged, they will intensify the attack on India's future. They cannot tolerate even a small ray of secular, democratic and scientific values in education. This intolerance has to be fought against. Hence, this is the time for all secular, democratic citizens of India to come forward in defense of secular, democratic and scientific education. (IPA Service)
SURGICAL STRIKE OF CBSE CURRICULUM IS MOTIVATED
SECULAR AND CONSTITUTIONAL VALUES ARE DOWNGRADED
Binoy Viswam - 2020-07-17 10:07
The rightist forces committed to the ideology of fascism have always been keen to impress upon the minds of the young generation their own line of thoughts. The guiding principle of Hitler in this regard was "catch them young". Once in power they do everything possible to translate this principle into practice. For them the meaning of pedagogy is to brain wash the young. The syllabus, the curriculum, the classrooms, and extracurricular activities - all are moulded to suit their schemes. That has become the essential characteristics of the educational policies of rightist governments the world over. Under the RSS controlled BJP regime India is following the oft beaten path of the rightists. It started with the New Education Policy which was designed to suit the tune of right reactionary hyper nationalism. The Indian education system from kindergarten to university is falling prey to this obscurantist offensive.