New Delhi: It’s not only the National Council of Educational Research and Training’s (NCERT) deletions in history and political science textbooks for classes 11 and 12 that have stirred up the hornet’s nest. Academics are also worried that “rationalising” key concepts in maths and science could potentially lead to learning gaps in students.
Earlier this month, reports said that the NCERT had removed portions of history pertaining to the Mughals, the Delhi Sultanate, Gandhi’s assassination and the Gujarat riots. In its response to the row that erupted, the NCERT, the government body that’s mandated with advising the central and state governments on policies and programmes for school education, said that the deletions were part of its rationalisation exercise undertaken to “unburden” students.
Among key deletions are ‘Euclid’s division lemma’ and ‘vector algebra’ from mathematics and ‘the reproductive system’ from biology. The changes will take effect in the current academic session.
Academics and educators ThePrint spoke to said they are worried that the less-talked about deletions in maths and sciences would affect a student’s fundamental understanding of the subjects. Further, they say it could have a significant impact on competitive examinations such as Joint Entrance Examination (JEE), National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), and National Aptitude Test in Architecture (NATA).
The changes mean that maths has now been greatly diluted, said Parbodh Bamba, a teacher at Delhi’s St Francis de Sales School who has been teaching the subject to higher secondary grades for nearly 30 years. This, he said, could lead to students facing trouble in Classes 11 and 12 and in competitive exams.
“The CBSE curriculum is the standard for several entrance exams in the country. While the board has been diluting the syllabus for sometime now, the level of difficulty of such exams has not been reduced in parity. The deletion of these concepts will not only impact their knowledge for these exams but the topics removed from Class 10 books will make the students unable to prove the theorems of several Class 11 and 12 concepts,” he said.
NCERT Director Dinesh Saklani told ThePrint by text message that he wasn’t available for comment due to “prior engagement”.
Meanwhile, in order to deal with the situation, schools are adapting different measures ranging from remedial classes to selective assessments to ensure that student learning goes unhampered but without adding to their burden. This, according to educators, means that the concepts will continue to be taught in schools but students won’t be assessed on them.
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Significant deletions
According to the rationalised syllabus, concepts like ‘proof of Pythagoras theorem’ and ‘Euclid’s division lemma’, and topics of quadratic equations and geometry have been removed from the Class 10 maths. In science, deletion of parts of Faraday’s law on electromagnetic induction and periodic classification of elements have been dropped.
‘Faraday’s law on electromagnetic induction’ forms the basis of the working of an electric motor.
For Class 11, topics like ‘Binomial theorem’, application of ‘Sine’ and ‘Cosine’ formula and exercises on ‘linear inequalities’ have been dropped from maths. Changes have also been made to zoology, botany and environmental chemistry for science.
‘Binomial theorem’ is the principle for expanding the algebraic expression while ‘Cosine’ and ‘Sine’ are important concepts in trigonometry. Both are useful for engineering maths.
For Class 12, topics like ‘vector algebra’, ‘integrals’ and ‘differential equations’ have been dropped from maths and ‘electromagnetic waves and induction’, ‘surface chemistry’ and ‘reproduction’ from science.
‘Vectors algebra’ describes motion and trajectory of an object, an important subject in different fields of engineering. ‘Integrals’ and ‘differentials’ are the basics in the fields of physics, math and engineering.
According to educators, the deletions would have a significant impact on those who want to study these subjects further.
“Not only have chapters on plants and animals been removed from secondary grades but also from primary grades. How will students who wish to study these subjects learn?” said a science teacher at a private school in Ahmedabad, who wished to not be named.
As for changes in physics, several of the concepts that have been dropped are significant for those taking the JEE.
“These topics form the basis of a lot of concepts,” he added. “These will have to be taught.”
How schools are coping
In an attempt to address these problems, schools are exploring how best to continue to teach these now out-of-syllabus concepts. These include sticking to the old syllabus and offering bridge courses and remedial classes to the students who wish to learn them.
A principal of one of Delhi government’s School Of Excellence said NCERT’s move will do “more damage than good” for students.
Delhi’s Schools of Excellence prepare their Class 11 and 12 students for competitive examinations, he said, adding that he had asked his teachers to continue teaching the old syllabus.
“We will be teaching them all the deleted chapters and topics. Of course, for assessment purposes, we will follow the central guidelines but we need to ensure that their overall learning is not affected,” the principal, who’s from a south Delhi school, told ThePrint.
Apeejay schools, meanwhile, will offer its students bridge courses and handouts for the deleted syllabus, Ritu Mehra, academic coordinator at Apeejay Education, told ThePrint.
“We’re worried that students won’t score as much as they did before if this syllabus is taught. Ahead of the summer and winter vacations, we will be conducting orientation classes for parents to tell them the importance of these bridge courses,” she said.
Likewise, Delhi Public School Bangalore believes teaching the deleted syllabus will help “conceptual understanding” of the subject.
While “topics which form the basis for concepts in higher education” will be taught in classrooms, according to its principal Manila Carvalho, they won’t be included in the assessment process.
Mount Abu Public School in Rohini is considering “optional remedial capsules” for Class 11 and 12. These will be given only to those interested in them, said school principal Jyoti Arora.
“We don’t want to burden the students who don’t want to pursue these subjects after Class 10,” she told ThePrint. “But those who wish to learn will be provided the tools to do so.”
(Edited by Uttara Ramaswamy)
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