West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took umbrage on Wednesday over the CBSE's decision to drop topics such as "citizenship", "federalism" and "partition" in an effort to rationalise its curriculum amid the COVID-19 crisis.
She appealed to the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry not to curtail important lessons at any cost.
"Shocked to know that the central government has dropped topics like Citizenship, Federalism, Secularism and Partition in the name of reducing CBSE course during COVID-19 crisis. We strongly object to this and appeal to the HRD Ministry to ensure these vital lessons aren't curtailed at any cost," she said in a tweet.
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has rationalised the syllabus for Classes 9 to 12 for the 2020-21 session by up to 30 per cent to make up for the academic loss caused due to COVID-19. It notified the new syllabus for these classes on Wednesday.
Aveek Majumdar, chairman of the West Bengal Syllabus Committee, described the CBSE's move as "illogical".
“Removing important topics in the name of reducing the syllabus is not good for the students. Even if we are planning to reduce the syllabus, that does not mean that we abruptly remove important topics from the syllabus,” he said.
Majumdar said the Centre’s decision to reduce the syllabus abruptly is not a good move. "This is going to hamper the students and they should not be deprived of important topics. There are ways to reduce the syllabus keeping the content intact,” he said.
“In Bengal, we have also started the process of slashing the syllabus. It is in the preliminary stage and we are in consultation with all the experts to do this,” he added.
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