Version imprimableby S Narendra Prasad
The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE), the prime body in the field of education, is in the news again. This time, it is for cutting short the chapters from history and political science in the Classes 11 and 12 syllabi. It is obvious that the history syllabus has particularly attracted the attention of the CBSE and the result is that students, are deprived of reading and understanding the parts which have been dropped.
Apparently, the reason for the move was the recommendations made by the National Council of Educational Research and Training (NCERT), another apex body at the helm of affairs. These changes were brought in to maintain rationalisation and to follow the recommendations. Chapters on the non-aligned movement, the Cold War, the rise of Islamic empires in Afro-Asian territories, the rise of the Caliphate, and the economic and social conditions during the times of these empires have been deleted. These changes have been effected in the Class 11 syllabus.
In the Class 12 syllabus, a chapter on the
