NCERT on dropping periodic table, democracy from Class 10 books: ‘Reducing load’

The National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has defended dropping full chapters and pages on the periodic table and democracy from Class 10 school books. In a statement, following a row over the removal of certain chapters from Class 10 books, NCERT said it was done to reduce the content load on the students. Among the chapters and pages that were omitted from Class 10 science textbooks include Periodic Classification of Element, Democracy, political parties (full page) and Challenges to Democracy.

Defending its decision to drop the chapters or pages from Class 10 textbooks, NCERT said, “NCERT drops full chapters of Periodic Classification of Element, Democracy, political parties (full page) and Challenges to Democracy from class 10th textbook to reduce the content load on students in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

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Recently, the NCERT announced to drop of “objectionable” content against Sikh Community from the political science textbook for Class 12 students of the CBSE. Following representations from stakeholders, including a letter from the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and a recommendation from the expert group established by NCERT, the relevant portions have been omitted.

Sanjay Kumar, Secretary of School Education, said, “NCERT has its own procedure that when…a request is received, it forms a committee of exports and takes decisions based on the recommendations of that export committee.”

“The SGPC says that it was written in the book that the Anandpur Sahib Resolution depicted that the Sikhs wanted a 'separate Sikh Nation' for themselves, objecting to that point because no such thing has been said in Anandpur Sahib Resolution,” he was quoted as saying by ANI.