By Express News Service
NEW DELHI: A day after controversy over the alleged removal of the periodic table, sources of energy, and also key chapters on democracy from Class 10 textbooks, NCERT on Friday clarified that these have not been removed from the curriculum rather they are available in Classes 11 and 12.
The autonomous body which prepares and publishes textbooks explained that a “Considered opinion emerged based on the feedback received from various stakeholders, including practising teachers, that children may not have to study the same concepts at different stages and it needs to be done at the appropriate stage.”
Therefore the same has been rationalised at this stage, more so considering the Covid pandemic situation, it added.
On rationalising the periodic table, the NCERT said that discussion about basic concepts such as elements, symbols, and formation of compounds, atoms and molecules had been dealt with in Class 9.
In Class 10, chemical reactions, acids, bases and salts, metals and non-metals, carbon and its compounds have been covered, the statement said.
Students pursuing the Science stream in Classes 11 and 12 will study the details of the Periodic Classification of Elements (Periodic table), it said.
The content placed in the periodic table again has been made more age-appropriate, more so considering the Covid pandemic situation.
A furore erupted after it appeared that NCERT had removed these crucial scientific contents from the Class 10 textbook. Earlier, removing the theory of evolution from the Class 10 science textbook had led to controversy as thousands of scientists, science teachers, and educators wrote an open letter raising concerns about the chapter on “Theory of Biological Evolution” being dropped from the NCERT textbook.
Commenting on the statement issued by NCERT, Gautam Menon, Professor of Physics and Biology and Dean of Research and Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Ashoka University, said, “The question is: What parts of science do we expect a 10th standard student – who may not encounter science in later classes – to know?
“Darwin’s theory of evolution and the periodic table are so central to their respective fields that they would seem an essential part of what a literate citizen should know,” he told TNIE.
The NCERT, which is an autonomous body set up in 1961 to assist and advise the central and state governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education, also clarified on dropping portions relating to social movements from Class 10, Political Science textbooks, Democratic Politics II and class XII Politics in India Since Independence.
It said that the expert committee in the rationalisation process believed that these are more appropriate to be part of the Sociology subject.
Chapter one of Class X, Democratic Politics- II, already deals with some aspects of Social Movements, it added.
In explaining the need to rationalise the textbooks from Classes 6 to 12, NCERT said, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers across the school stages were at home and managing teaching-learning using alternative modes.”
NCERT attempted to rationalise the contents of the textbooks in 2021 considering the following criteria: Overlapping with similar content included in the other subject area in the same class, similar content contained in the lower or higher class in the same subject, and increased difficulty level, it explained.
It further said that content which is easily accessible to children and does not require much intervention from the teachers, and can be learnt through self-learning or peer learning, and content which is not relevant in the present context or is outdated was dropped.
“Learning outcomes already developed across the classes are taken care of in this rationalisation exercise,” the statement said.
NEW DELHI: A day after controversy over the alleged removal of the periodic table, sources of energy, and also key chapters on democracy from Class 10 textbooks, NCERT on Friday clarified that these have not been removed from the curriculum rather they are available in Classes 11 and 12.
The autonomous body which prepares and publishes textbooks explained that a “Considered opinion emerged based on the feedback received from various stakeholders, including practising teachers, that children may not have to study the same concepts at different stages and it needs to be done at the appropriate stage.”
Therefore the same has been rationalised at this stage, more so considering the Covid pandemic situation, it added.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
On rationalising the periodic table, the NCERT said that discussion about basic concepts such as elements, symbols, and formation of compounds, atoms and molecules had been dealt with in Class 9.
In Class 10, chemical reactions, acids, bases and salts, metals and non-metals, carbon and its compounds have been covered, the statement said.
Students pursuing the Science stream in Classes 11 and 12 will study the details of the Periodic Classification of Elements (Periodic table), it said.
The content placed in the periodic table again has been made more age-appropriate, more so considering the Covid pandemic situation.
A furore erupted after it appeared that NCERT had removed these crucial scientific contents from the Class 10 textbook. Earlier, removing the theory of evolution from the Class 10 science textbook had led to controversy as thousands of scientists, science teachers, and educators wrote an open letter raising concerns about the chapter on “Theory of Biological Evolution” being dropped from the NCERT textbook.
Commenting on the statement issued by NCERT, Gautam Menon, Professor of Physics and Biology and Dean of Research and Director of the Centre for Climate Change and Sustainability Ashoka University, said, “The question is: What parts of science do we expect a 10th standard student – who may not encounter science in later classes – to know?
“Darwin’s theory of evolution and the periodic table are so central to their respective fields that they would seem an essential part of what a literate citizen should know,” he told TNIE.
The NCERT, which is an autonomous body set up in 1961 to assist and advise the central and state governments on policies and programmes for qualitative improvement in school education, also clarified on dropping portions relating to social movements from Class 10, Political Science textbooks, Democratic Politics II and class XII Politics in India Since Independence.
It said that the expert committee in the rationalisation process believed that these are more appropriate to be part of the Sociology subject.
Chapter one of Class X, Democratic Politics- II, already deals with some aspects of Social Movements, it added.
In explaining the need to rationalise the textbooks from Classes 6 to 12, NCERT said, “During the COVID-19 pandemic, students and teachers across the school stages were at home and managing teaching-learning using alternative modes.”
NCERT attempted to rationalise the contents of the textbooks in 2021 considering the following criteria: Overlapping with similar content included in the other subject area in the same class, similar content contained in the lower or higher class in the same subject, and increased difficulty level, it explained.
It further said that content which is easily accessible to children and does not require much intervention from the teachers, and can be learnt through self-learning or peer learning, and content which is not relevant in the present context or is outdated was dropped.
“Learning outcomes already developed across the classes are taken care of in this rationalisation exercise,” the statement said.
